Mapleton, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mapleton, 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 Mapleton 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 Mapleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mapleton — the short answer
Mapleton, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Mapleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mapleton's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mapleton
Each reading below is measured for Mapleton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMapleton runs about 167 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
MeasuredMapleton 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 Mapleton is in
Mapleton sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Mapleton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Mapleton
Every plant below cleared Mapleton's own zone 4a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mapleton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Mapleton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mapleton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 139-050-06BBB2Nitrate · 700 ft
- 139-050-06ABBNitrate · 0.6 mi
- Gordys Inc AmprideUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 140-050-32DCCNitrate · 1.6 mi
- NUSTAR ENERGY - MAPLETON TERMINALBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 140-050-33CCCNitrate · 2.1 mi
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES 6525Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- 139-050-04DCDNitrate · 2.9 mi
- Andrews FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 139-050-10ADDNitrate · 4.2 mi
- 140-050-35CDCNitrate · 4.4 mi
- 139-050-02DBCNitrate · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mapleton'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 Mapleton.
Total Sites
339
within ~10 miles of Mapleton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mapleton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mapleton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mapleton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 120 sites within ~10 miles of Mapleton. 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 Mapleton
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 Mapleton average
Your land is one point inside Mapleton
Everything above resolves to Mapleton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mapleton Average
Mapleton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Mapleton
- ●One soil character for all of Mapleton
- ●Frost dates read at Mapleton's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mapleton's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mapleton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mapleton, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mapleton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mapleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mapleton average
How we know this about Mapleton
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 Mapleton’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 Mapleton
When does frost risk typically end in Mapleton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mapleton typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Mapleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mapleton typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mapleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mapleton sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 27, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mapleton?
The federal record around Mapleton is a meaningful one — 339 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (120), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Mapleton?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mapleton's scale — its 4a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mapleton'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 Mapleton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mapleton's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,503 acres it covers and 339 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mapleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mapleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 11 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 339 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mapleton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mapleton's boundary and the 2,503 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mapleton's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mapleton's 2,503 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mapleton's 2,503 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mapleton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,503 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Mapleton-wide figureread your own land →
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