Hettinger, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hettinger, 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 Hettinger 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 Hettinger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hettinger — the short answer
Hettinger, North Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 531 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 531 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 4b is Hettinger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hettinger's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hettinger
Each reading below is measured for Hettinger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHettinger runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHettinger sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Hettinger is in
Hettinger sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hettinger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Hettinger
Every plant below cleared Hettinger's own zone 4b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hettinger?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Hettinger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hettinger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Adams County Emergency OperationUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Central Dakota FrontierUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Cenex Self ServeUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Kum and Go Store 811Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 129-096-12DCD2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Great Plains SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Austad IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 129-096-13BDBNitrate · 1800 ft
- 129-096-13BBB1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 129-096-13BBB3Nitrate · 1800 ft
- West Side Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Hettinger StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hettinger'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 Hettinger.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Hettinger
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hettinger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hettinger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hettinger, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Hettinger. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hettinger
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 Hettinger average
Your land is one point inside Hettinger
Everything above resolves to Hettinger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 531 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 city 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 Hettinger Average
Hettinger Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hettinger
- ●One soil character for all of Hettinger
- ●Frost dates read at Hettinger's scale: May 7 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hettinger's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hettinger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hettinger, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hettinger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hettinger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hettinger average
How we know this about Hettinger
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hettinger’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Hettinger
When does frost risk typically end in Hettinger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hettinger typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Hettinger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hettinger typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hettinger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hettinger sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 18, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hettinger?
The federal record around Hettinger shows 118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Hettinger?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Hettinger rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Hettinger's scale — its 4b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hettinger'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 Hettinger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hettinger's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 531 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hettinger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hettinger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 2 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hettinger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hettinger's boundary and the 531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hettinger's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hettinger's 531 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hettinger's 531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hettinger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 531 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hettinger-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaHettinger sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.