Lake Poinsett, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Poinsett, 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 Lake Poinsett 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 Lake Poinsett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Poinsett — the short answer
Lake Poinsett, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Lake Poinsett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Poinsett's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Poinsett
Each reading below is measured for Lake Poinsett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Poinsett runs about 164 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
MeasuredLake Poinsett 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 Lake Poinsett is in
Lake Poinsett sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Poinsett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamlin County.
What Grows in Lake Poinsett
Every plant below cleared Lake Poinsett's own zone 4b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Poinsett?
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 7 — 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 Lake Poinsett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Poinsett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIOUXLAND STORE & CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 113N53W22AAADNitrate · 3.1 mi
- 113N53W15DCAANitrate · 3.7 mi
- DRUMGOON DIGESTER RENEWABLE ENERGYBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- 113N52W36CDDDNitrate · 4.9 mi
- NORDEN MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 113N51W19CCCCNitrate · 5.1 mi
- LNCToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
- LNCBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- SANFORD CLINIC LAKE NORDENBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- 113N53W20DANitrate · 5.1 mi
- HAMLIN COUNTY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Poinsett'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 Lake Poinsett.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Lake Poinsett
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Poinsett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Poinsett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Poinsett, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 84 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Poinsett. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lake Poinsett
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 Lake Poinsett average
Your land is one point inside Lake Poinsett
Everything above resolves to Lake Poinsett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Lake Poinsett Average
Lake Poinsett Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lake Poinsett
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Poinsett
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Poinsett's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Poinsett's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Poinsett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Poinsett, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Poinsett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Poinsett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Poinsett average
How we know this about Lake Poinsett
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 Lake Poinsett’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 Lake Poinsett
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Poinsett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Poinsett 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 Lake Poinsett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Poinsett typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Poinsett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Poinsett sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 23, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Poinsett?
The federal record around Lake Poinsett shows 104 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Lake Poinsett?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Poinsett's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Poinsett'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 Lake Poinsett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Poinsett's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,160 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Poinsett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Poinsett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 7 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Poinsett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Poinsett's boundary and the 3,160 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Poinsett's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Poinsett's 3,160 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamlin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamlin 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 Hamlin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Poinsett's 3,160 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Poinsett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,160 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Lake Poinsett-wide figureread your own land →