Blunt, South 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Blunt, 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 Blunt 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 Blunt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blunt — the short answer
Blunt, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 312 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 312 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 Blunt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blunt's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blunt
Each reading below is measured for Blunt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlunt runs about 164 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
MeasuredBlunt 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 Blunt is in
Blunt sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Blunt's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hughes County.
What Grows in Blunt
Every plant below cleared Blunt's own zone 4b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blunt?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Blunt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blunt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SMALL OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BLUNT BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KENS SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 112N76W 9CBABNitrate · 1600 ft
- PIERRE FARMERS ELEVATOR ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OAHE ELECTRIC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 112N76W 8DBCDNitrate · 2100 ft
- 112N76W10BBBB (2)Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 112N76W 3DABA (2)Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 112N77W17AADDNitrate · 6.6 mi
- 113N76W 9ADANitrate · 7.0 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blunt'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 Blunt.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blunt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blunt, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Blunt. 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 Blunt
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 Blunt average
Your land is one point inside Blunt
Everything above resolves to Blunt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 312 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 Blunt Average
Blunt Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Blunt
- ●One soil character for all of Blunt
- ●Frost dates read at Blunt's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blunt's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blunt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blunt, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blunt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blunt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blunt average
How we know this about Blunt
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 Blunt’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 Blunt
When does frost risk typically end in Blunt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blunt typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Blunt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blunt typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blunt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blunt sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 26, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blunt?
The federal record around Blunt is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Blunt?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blunt's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blunt'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 Blunt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blunt's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 312 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blunt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blunt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 10 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blunt, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blunt's boundary and the 312 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blunt's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blunt's 312 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hughes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hughes 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 Hughes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blunt's 312 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blunt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 312 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 Blunt-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaBlunt sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides