Baltic, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Baltic, 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 Baltic 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 Baltic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baltic — the short answer
Baltic, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 472 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 472 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 5a is Baltic's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baltic's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baltic
Each reading below is measured for Baltic itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaltic runs about 173 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
MeasuredBaltic sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Baltic is in
Baltic sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Baltic's own centroid rather than borrowed from Minnehaha County.
What Grows in Baltic
Every plant below cleared Baltic's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baltic?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Baltic
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baltic. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BALTIC SERVICE - WENT BANK RUPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CLASSIC CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BALTIC HIGH SCHOOL ADDITIONBrownfields · 750 ft
- B.J.'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BALTIC FARMERS ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BALTIC CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BALTIC SCHOOL DIST #49-1Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 103N49W 5BADANitrate · 1300 ft
- HELGERSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 103N49W 5BBBBNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 103N49W 6AAAANitrate · 0.7 mi
- 103N49W 6AADBNitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baltic'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 Baltic.
Total Sites
218
within ~10 miles of Baltic
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baltic
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baltic
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baltic, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 154 sites within ~10 miles of Baltic. 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 Baltic
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 Baltic average
Your land is one point inside Baltic
Everything above resolves to Baltic as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 472 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 Baltic Average
Baltic Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Baltic
- ●One soil character for all of Baltic
- ●Frost dates read at Baltic's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baltic's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baltic
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baltic, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baltic averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baltic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baltic average
How we know this about Baltic
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 Baltic’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 Baltic
When does frost risk typically end in Baltic?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baltic typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Baltic?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baltic typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baltic?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baltic sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 28, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baltic?
The federal record around Baltic is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (154), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Baltic?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baltic's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baltic'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 Baltic’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baltic's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 472 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baltic's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baltic's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 12 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baltic, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baltic's boundary and the 472 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baltic's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baltic's 472 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Minnehaha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Minnehaha County
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Minnehaha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baltic's 472 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baltic you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 472 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 Baltic-wide figureread your own land →