Tioga, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — 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, epazote, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tioga, 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 Tioga 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 Tioga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tioga — the short answer
Tioga, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~137
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 3b is Tioga's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tioga's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tioga
Each reading below is measured for Tioga itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTioga runs about 137 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
MeasuredTioga sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Tioga is in
Tioga sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tioga's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williams County.
What Grows in Tioga
Every plant below cleared Tioga's own zone 3b and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tioga?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Tioga
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tioga. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Amoco Pipeline CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Farmers Union Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Brokaw and Jones PlasteringUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Basin Pipeline Construction CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Tioga Motor Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 157-095-27DCBNitrate · 1900 ft
- 157-095-27DBDNitrate · 2000 ft
- Wilcox Wonser HeatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 157-095-27DDCNitrate · 0.6 mi
- HESS TIOGA RAIL TERMINALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Kum and Go Store 812Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JAFCO INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tioga'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 Tioga.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Tioga
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tioga
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tioga
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tioga, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Tioga. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Tioga
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 Tioga average
Your land is one point inside Tioga
Everything above resolves to Tioga as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Tioga Average
Tioga Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Tioga
- ●One soil character for all of Tioga
- ●Frost dates read at Tioga's scale: May 10 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tioga's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tioga
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tioga, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tioga averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tioga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tioga average
How we know this about Tioga
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 Tioga’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 Tioga
When does frost risk typically end in Tioga?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tioga typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Tioga?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tioga typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tioga?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tioga sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 10, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tioga?
The federal record around Tioga shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Tioga?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Tioga 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 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Tioga's scale — its 3b band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tioga'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 Tioga’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tioga's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,163 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tioga's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tioga's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 24 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tioga, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tioga's boundary and the 2,163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tioga's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tioga's 2,163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williams 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 Williams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tioga's 2,163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tioga you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Tioga-wide figureread your own land →
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