Fort Totten, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Totten, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Fort Totten lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Fort Totten — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Totten — the short answer
Fort Totten, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is Fort Totten's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Totten's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Totten
Each reading below is measured for Fort Totten itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Totten runs about 164 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFort Totten sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Fort Totten is in
Fort Totten sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Totten's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benson County.
What Grows in Fort Totten
Every plant below cleared Fort Totten's own zone 4a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Totten?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Fort Totten
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Totten. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 152-065-20BCCNitrate · 500 ft
- Fort Totten Public School District 30 (BIA)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SMC- KEVLAR COATING FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- SIOUX MANUFACTURING CORPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 152-065-21BBCNitrate · 1.1 mi
- Fort Totten Historic SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Dakota Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Old ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 152-065-17BBB2Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 152-065-17BAANitrate · 1.5 mi
- 152-065-29DDDANitrate · 1.7 mi
- 152-066-24CABNitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Totten's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Fort Totten.
Total Sites
382
within ~10 miles of Fort Totten
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Totten
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Totten
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Totten, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 360 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Totten. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fort Totten
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Totten average
Your land is one point inside Fort Totten
Everything above resolves to Fort Totten as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Fort Totten Average
Fort Totten Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Fort Totten
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Totten
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Totten's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Totten's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Totten
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Totten, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Totten averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Totten — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Totten average
How we know this about Fort Totten
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fort Totten’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Fort Totten
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Totten?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Totten typically lands around Apr 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 19.
When is the first frost in Fort Totten?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Totten typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Totten?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Totten sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 25, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Totten?
The federal record around Fort Totten is a meaningful one — 382 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (360), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Totten?
From about Sep 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Totten's scale — its 4a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Totten's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Fort Totten’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Totten's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,504 acres it covers and 382 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Totten's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Totten's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 9 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 382 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Totten, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Totten's boundary and the 5,504 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Totten's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Totten's 5,504 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benson County
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Benson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Totten's 5,504 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Totten you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,504 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Fort Totten-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaFort Totten sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides