White Earth, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in White Earth, 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 White Earth 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 White Earth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
White Earth — the short answer
White Earth, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 959 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 959 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 White Earth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Earth's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Earth
Each reading below is measured for White Earth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Earth runs about 141 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
MeasuredWhite Earth 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 White Earth is in
White Earth sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at White Earth's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mountrail County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in White Earth
Every plant below cleared White Earth's own zone 4a and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Earth?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near White Earth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Earth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 157-094-36BCCNitrate · 1300 ft
- 156-094-16DBANitrate · 3.1 mi
- 157-094-29BCCNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 156-094-24CBDNitrate · 5.0 mi
- Tioga AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- WBI ENERGY TIOGA STATIONBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- HESS TIOGA GAS PLANT LLCToxics Release Inventory · 6.7 mi
- HESS CORPORATION - TIOGA GAS PLANT LABBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- Northern Tank Line TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- PLAINS PIPELINE - MANITOU RAIL TERMINALBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- HILAND CRUDE - MANITOU STATIONBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- 155-094-05BDBNitrate · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Earth'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 White Earth.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of White Earth
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Earth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Earth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Earth, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of White Earth. 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 White Earth
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 White Earth average
Your land is one point inside White Earth
Everything above resolves to White Earth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 959 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 White Earth Average
White Earth Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across White Earth
- ●One soil character for all of White Earth
- ●Frost dates read at White Earth's scale: May 8 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Earth's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Earth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Earth, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Earth averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Earth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Earth average
How we know this about White Earth
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 White Earth’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 White Earth
When does frost risk typically end in White Earth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Earth typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in White Earth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Earth typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Earth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Earth sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 12, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Earth?
The federal record around White Earth shows 73 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate 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 White Earth?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, White Earth 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 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at White Earth's scale — its 4a band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Earth'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 White Earth’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Earth's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 959 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Earth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Earth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 26 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Earth, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Earth's boundary and the 959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- White Earth sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Earth's 959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mountrail County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mountrail 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 Mountrail County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Earth's 959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Earth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 959 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 White Earth-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaWhite Earth sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides