Oahe Acres, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oahe Acres, 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 Oahe Acres 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 Oahe Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oahe Acres — the short answer
Oahe Acres, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 845 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 845 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 Oahe Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oahe Acres's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oahe Acres
Each reading below is measured for Oahe Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOahe Acres runs about 171 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
MeasuredOahe Acres 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 Oahe Acres is in
Oahe Acres sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oahe Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hughes County.
What Grows in Oahe Acres
Every plant below cleared Oahe Acres's own zone 5a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oahe Acres?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Oahe Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oahe Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREY GOOSE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 111N79W 5ABCCNitrate · 0.9 mi
- OAHEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- 112N79W21BBCCNitrate · 2.5 mi
- OAHE MARINA AND RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- OAHE DAM MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 112N79W14CCDBNitrate · 3.4 mi
- 112N79W19BBBBNitrate · 3.5 mi
- 112N80W23DDCANitrate · 3.9 mi
- 111N79W23BACANitrate · 4.4 mi
- 1804 COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- PIERREPFAS · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oahe Acres'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 Oahe Acres.
Total Sites
198
within ~10 miles of Oahe Acres
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oahe Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oahe Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oahe Acres, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Oahe Acres. 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 Oahe Acres
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 Oahe Acres average
Your land is one point inside Oahe Acres
Everything above resolves to Oahe Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 845 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 Oahe Acres Average
Oahe Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Oahe Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Oahe Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Oahe Acres's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oahe Acres's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oahe Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oahe Acres, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oahe Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oahe Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oahe Acres average
How we know this about Oahe Acres
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 Oahe Acres’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 Oahe Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Oahe Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oahe Acres typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Oahe Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oahe Acres typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oahe Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oahe Acres sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 28, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oahe Acres?
The federal record around Oahe Acres is a meaningful one — 198 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Oahe Acres?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oahe Acres's scale — its 5a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oahe Acres'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 Oahe Acres’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oahe Acres's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 845 acres it covers and 198 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oahe Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oahe Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 12 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 198 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oahe Acres, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oahe Acres's boundary and the 845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oahe Acres's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oahe Acres's 845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hughes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hughes 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 Hughes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oahe Acres's 845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oahe Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 845 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Oahe Acres-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaOahe Acres sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides