Hitchcock, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hitchcock, 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 Hitchcock 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 Hitchcock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hitchcock — the short answer
Hitchcock, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 175 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 175 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 Hitchcock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hitchcock's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hitchcock
Each reading below is measured for Hitchcock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHitchcock 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
MeasuredHitchcock 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 Hitchcock is in
Hitchcock sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hitchcock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beadle County.
What Grows in Hitchcock
Every plant below cleared Hitchcock's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hitchcock?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Hitchcock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hitchcock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NUZIRGA BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 113N63W 4BADD2Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 113N63W 4BADDNitrate · 1400 ft
- 113N63W 4BADC2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 113N63W 2BBBB (2)Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 113N63W 6AAAANitrate · 1.7 mi
- COASTAL MART, INC. #1822Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 114N63W21DDDD (2)Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 114N63W27AAAANitrate · 2.6 mi
- 113N63W17DDDDNitrate · 2.7 mi
- 113N63W17CCDA2Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 113N64W 1BAAANitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hitchcock'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 Hitchcock.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Hitchcock
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
112 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hitchcock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hitchcock, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 112 sites within ~10 miles of Hitchcock. 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 Hitchcock
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 Hitchcock average
Your land is one point inside Hitchcock
Everything above resolves to Hitchcock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 175 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 Hitchcock Average
Hitchcock Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hitchcock
- ●One soil character for all of Hitchcock
- ●Frost dates read at Hitchcock's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hitchcock's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hitchcock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hitchcock, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hitchcock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hitchcock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hitchcock average
How we know this about Hitchcock
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 Hitchcock’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 Hitchcock
When does frost risk typically end in Hitchcock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hitchcock typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Hitchcock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hitchcock typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hitchcock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hitchcock sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 25, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hitchcock?
The federal record around Hitchcock shows 118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hitchcock?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hitchcock's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hitchcock'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 Hitchcock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hitchcock's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 175 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hitchcock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hitchcock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 9 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hitchcock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hitchcock's boundary and the 175 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 ecoregion at Hitchcock's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hitchcock's 175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beadle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beadle 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 Beadle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hitchcock's 175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hitchcock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 175 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hitchcock-wide figureread your own land →
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