Chancellor, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Chancellor, 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 Chancellor 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 Chancellor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chancellor — the short answer
Chancellor, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 141 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 141 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 Chancellor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chancellor's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chancellor
Each reading below is measured for Chancellor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChancellor runs about 178 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
MeasuredChancellor 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 Chancellor is in
Chancellor sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chancellor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Turner County.
What Grows in Chancellor
Every plant below cleared Chancellor's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chancellor?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Chancellor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chancellor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 99N52W28AACANitrate · 50 ft
- POET BIOPROCESSING - CHANCELLOR, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- POET BIOPROCESSING - CHANCELLOR, LLCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 99N52W31AAAANitrate · 2.1 mi
- 99N52W19AAAANitrate · 2.1 mi
- 98N52W 2AAAANitrate · 2.9 mi
- 99N53W36AAAANitrate · 2.9 mi
- 99N53W35AAAANitrate · 3.9 mi
- 98N52W 7BCADNitrate · 4.2 mi
- 98N52W 7DDDD2Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 98N52W 7DDDDNitrate · 4.2 mi
- 99N51W31DDCCNitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chancellor'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 Chancellor.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of Chancellor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chancellor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chancellor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chancellor, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 158 sites within ~10 miles of Chancellor. 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 Chancellor
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 Chancellor average
Your land is one point inside Chancellor
Everything above resolves to Chancellor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 141 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 town 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 Chancellor Average
Chancellor Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Chancellor
- ●One soil character for all of Chancellor
- ●Frost dates read at Chancellor's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chancellor's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chancellor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chancellor, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chancellor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chancellor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chancellor average
How we know this about Chancellor
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Chancellor’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Chancellor
When does frost risk typically end in Chancellor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chancellor typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Chancellor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chancellor typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chancellor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chancellor sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chancellor?
The federal record around Chancellor is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (158), the nearest Nitrate 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 Chancellor?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chancellor's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chancellor'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 Chancellor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chancellor's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 141 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chancellor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chancellor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 16 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chancellor, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chancellor's boundary and the 141 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chancellor's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chancellor's 141 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Turner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Turner 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 Turner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chancellor's 141 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chancellor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 141 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Chancellor-wide figureread your own land →