Hughes County, in South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hughes County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hughes County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Hughes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hughes County — the short answer
Hughes County, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 475K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 475K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Hughes County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hughes County's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hughes County
Across a year, Hughes County accumulates about 2,552 growing degree days above 50°F, about 126 more than the middle South Dakota county — ahead of 43 of South Dakota’s 66 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Hughes County
Across Hughes County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Highmore, Mobridge, and Lowry are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.4–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hughes County
The USDA soil survey maps 72% of Hughes County as well drained — but another 20% drains differently: 16% moderately well drained, 4% poorly drained.
Highmore is the most extensive named soil at 30% of mapped acres, then Mobridge (6%) and Lowry (5%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hughes County
Each reading below is measured for Hughes County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hughes County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hughes County runs about pH 6.4–7.0, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHughes County runs about 166 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
MeasuredHughes County 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 Hughes County is in
Hughes County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Glaciated Plains (79%) and Northwestern Great Plains (21%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Hughes County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hughes County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 166-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile.
Is it too late to plant in Hughes County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Hughes County
- monarch butterfly5 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hughes County
USGS estimates 132,254 lb of Glyphosate on Hughes County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (16,650 lb) and Dicamba (11,882 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hughes County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hughes County — 219 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Hughes County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hughes County
Closest first, across Hughes County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUGHES COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 110N76W19BDDNitrate · 5.1 mi
- 110N75W17DCDD (2)Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 111N75W35DDDDNitrate · 8.5 mi
- PIERRE FARMERS ELEVATOR ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- OAHE ELECTRIC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- SMALL OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- KENS SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- BLUNT BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- 112N76W 8DBCDNitrate · 9.1 mi
- 112N76W 9CBABNitrate · 9.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hughes County'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 Hughes County.
Total Sites
219
across Hughes County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hughes County
Severity Distribution
across Hughes County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hughes County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 122 sites across Hughes County. 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 Hughes County
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 Hughes County average
Your land is one point inside Hughes County
Everything above resolves to Hughes County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 475K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Hughes County Average
Hughes County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hughes County
- ●One soil character for all of Hughes County
- ●Frost dates read at Hughes County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hughes County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hughes County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hughes County, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hughes County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hughes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hughes County average
How we know this about Hughes County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Hughes County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hughes County
When does frost risk typically end in Hughes County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hughes County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Hughes County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hughes County sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 27, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hughes County?
The federal record around Hughes County is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Hughes County's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hughes County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads South Dakota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Hughes County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hughes County's own scale — its own ~166-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 219 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hughes County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hughes County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hughes CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 219 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hughes County's boundary and the 474,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hughes County spans, Northwestern Glaciated Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hughes County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hughes County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hughes County — the ~166 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hughes County's 474,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 219 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Hughes Countyread your own land →