Dupree, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dupree, 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 Dupree 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 Dupree — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dupree — the short answer
Dupree, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 251 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 251 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 Dupree's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dupree's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dupree
Each reading below is measured for Dupree itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDupree runs about 160 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
MeasuredDupree 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 Dupree is in
Dupree sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dupree's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ziebach County.
What Grows in Dupree
Every plant below cleared Dupree's own zone 4b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dupree?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Dupree
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dupree. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 13N21E31ACCDNitrate · 1200 ft
- DUPREE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 13N21E30DCBC2Nitrate · 2500 ft
- 13N21E30DCBCNitrate · 2500 ft
- 13N21E30DBBANitrate · 0.8 mi
- ZIEBACH CO HWY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CENEX IUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CENEX FARMERS UNION OIL COMPANY 2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 12N22E 6AANitrate · 5.9 mi
- 13N22E29CCNitrate · 6.8 mi
- 13N22E32CANitrate · 7.0 mi
- 13N22E32CDNitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dupree'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 Dupree.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dupree
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dupree, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Dupree. 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 Dupree
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 Dupree average
Your land is one point inside Dupree
Everything above resolves to Dupree as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 251 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 Dupree Average
Dupree Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Dupree
- ●One soil character for all of Dupree
- ●Frost dates read at Dupree's scale: May 1 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dupree's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dupree
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dupree, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dupree averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dupree — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dupree average
How we know this about Dupree
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 Dupree’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 Dupree
When does frost risk typically end in Dupree?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dupree typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Dupree?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dupree typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dupree?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dupree sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 24, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dupree?
The federal record around Dupree is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (28), 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 Dupree?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dupree's scale — its 4b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dupree'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 Dupree’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dupree's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 251 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dupree's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dupree's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 8 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dupree, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dupree's boundary and the 251 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dupree's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dupree's 251 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ziebach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ziebach 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 Ziebach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dupree's 251 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dupree you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 251 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 Dupree-wide figureread your own land →
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