Colome, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Colome, 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 Colome 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 Colome — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Colome — the short answer
Colome, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 180 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 180 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 Colome's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colome's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Colome
Each reading below is measured for Colome itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColome runs about 176 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
MeasuredColome 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 Colome is in
Colome sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Colome's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tripp County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Colome
Every plant below cleared Colome's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Colome?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Colome
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Colome. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLYING D CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CORNER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 97N75W 3BBBBNitrate · 2300 ft
- 98N75W34ACAANitrate · 1.1 mi
- 98N75W31DDNitrate · 1.8 mi
- 97N75W10DCCCNitrate · 2.4 mi
- 97N76W 1CC2Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 97N76W 1CCNitrate · 2.8 mi
- 97N76W 1DDDDNitrate · 3.1 mi
- 97N76W 1BBAANitrate · 3.2 mi
- 97N76W 1CNitrate · 3.6 mi
- 97N75W18DDDDNitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colome'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 Colome.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of Colome
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
80 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Colome
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Colome, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Colome. 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 Colome
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 Colome average
Your land is one point inside Colome
Everything above resolves to Colome as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 180 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 Colome Average
Colome Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Colome
- ●One soil character for all of Colome
- ●Frost dates read at Colome's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colome's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Colome
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colome, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colome averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colome — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colome average
How we know this about Colome
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 Colome’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 Colome
When does frost risk typically end in Colome?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colome typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Colome?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Colome typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Colome?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colome sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 3, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colome?
The federal record around Colome shows 84 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 I protect my plants from frost in Colome?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Colome's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colome'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 Colome’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Colome's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 180 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colome's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colome's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 17 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Colome, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Colome's boundary and the 180 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Colome sits in the Northwestern Glaciated 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 Colome's 180 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tripp County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tripp 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 Tripp County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colome's 180 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Colome you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 180 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 Colome-wide figureread your own land →
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