Bristol, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bristol, 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 Bristol 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 Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bristol — the short answer
Bristol, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 334 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 334 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 Bristol's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bristol's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bristol
Each reading below is measured for Bristol itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBristol runs about 172 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
MeasuredBristol 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 Bristol is in
Bristol sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bristol's own centroid rather than borrowed from Day County.
What Grows in Bristol
Every plant below cleared Bristol's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bristol?
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 Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Bristol
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bristol. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 122N58W25CAADNitrate · 1000 ft
- BRISTOL SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- HORTER RESTORATION & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STEFFES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 122N58W25CBADNitrate · 1500 ft
- 122N58W25CABBNitrate · 1700 ft
- BRISTOL DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 122N58W25CBACNitrate · 2300 ft
- 122N58W25CBAC2Nitrate · 2400 ft
- DALES SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HANSMEIER & SON, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FARMERS ELEVATOR CO OF HOLMQUISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bristol'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 Bristol.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bristol, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Bristol. 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 Bristol
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 Bristol average
Your land is one point inside Bristol
Everything above resolves to Bristol as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 334 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 Bristol Average
Bristol Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Bristol
- ●One soil character for all of Bristol
- ●Frost dates read at Bristol's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bristol's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bristol
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bristol, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bristol averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bristol average
How we know this about Bristol
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 Bristol’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 Bristol
When does frost risk typically end in Bristol?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Bristol?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bristol?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bristol sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 30, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bristol?
The federal record around Bristol is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Nitrate 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 Bristol?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bristol's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bristol'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 Bristol’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bristol's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 334 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bristol's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bristol's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 14 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bristol, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bristol's boundary and the 334 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bristol's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bristol's 334 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Day County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Day 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 Day County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bristol's 334 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bristol you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 334 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 Bristol-wide figureread your own land →