Manderson-White Horse Creek, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Manderson-White Horse Creek, 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manderson-White Horse Creek — the short answer
Manderson-White Horse Creek, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manderson-White Horse Creek's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manderson-White Horse Creek
Each reading below is measured for Manderson-White Horse Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManderson-White Horse Creek runs about 162 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
MeasuredManderson-White Horse Creek 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek is in
Manderson-White Horse Creek sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Manderson-White Horse Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oglala Lakota County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Manderson-White Horse Creek
Every plant below cleared Manderson-White Horse Creek's own zone 5a and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manderson-White Horse Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (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.
What's on the federal record near Manderson-White Horse Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manderson-White Horse Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 38N44W25DDBNitrate · 1.2 mi
- US POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MANDERSON DAY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LITTLE WARRIOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- PORCUPINE SCHOOL BUS SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- PORCUPINE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- OUR LADY OF LOURDESUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
Measured from Manderson-White Horse Creek'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 Manderson-White Horse Creek.
Total Sites
8
within ~10 miles of Manderson-White Horse Creek
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manderson-White Horse Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manderson-White Horse Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Manderson-White Horse Creek
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 Manderson-White Horse Creek average
Your land is one point inside Manderson-White Horse Creek
Everything above resolves to Manderson-White Horse Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek Average
Manderson-White Horse Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Manderson-White Horse Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Manderson-White Horse Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Manderson-White Horse Creek's scale: May 2 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manderson-White Horse Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manderson-White Horse Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manderson-White Horse Creek, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manderson-White Horse Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manderson-White Horse Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manderson-White Horse Creek average
How we know this about Manderson-White Horse Creek
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 Manderson-White Horse Creek’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 Manderson-White Horse Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Manderson-White Horse Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manderson-White Horse Creek typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Manderson-White Horse Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manderson-White Horse Creek typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manderson-White Horse Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manderson-White Horse Creek sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 27, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manderson-White Horse Creek?
The federal record around Manderson-White Horse Creek is light — 8 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manderson-White Horse Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manderson-White Horse Creek'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 Manderson-White Horse Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Manderson-White Horse Creek's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,669 acres it covers and 8 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manderson-White Horse Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manderson-White Horse Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 11 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 8 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manderson-White Horse Creek, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manderson-White Horse Creek's boundary and the 3,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Manderson-White Horse Creek sits in the High 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek's 3,669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oglala Lakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oglala Lakota 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 Oglala Lakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manderson-White Horse Creek's 3,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manderson-White Horse Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,669 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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