Pine Ridge, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Pine Ridge, 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 Pine Ridge 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 Pine Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Ridge — the short answer
Pine Ridge, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Pine Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Ridge's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Pine Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Ridge runs about 153 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
MeasuredPine Ridge 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 Pine Ridge is in
Pine Ridge sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pine Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oglala Lakota County.
What Grows in Pine Ridge
Every plant below cleared Pine Ridge's own zone 4b and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Ridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — 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 Pine Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PINE RIDGE OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- BIG BAT'S CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PINE RIDGE CORRECTIONAL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- OGLALA SIOUX TRIBE - PUBLIC SAFETYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- REDDY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- RED CLOUD INDIAN SCHOOL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- B.I.A. PINE RIDGE AGENCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- YELLOW BIRDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SIOUX NATION GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 35N45W12CCCANitrate · 1.1 mi
- JUMPING EAGLE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 35N44W17DBCA6OST Deep SouthNitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Ridge'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 Pine Ridge.
Total Sites
25
within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Ridge, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge. 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 Pine Ridge
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 Pine Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Pine Ridge
Everything above resolves to Pine Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Pine Ridge Average
Pine Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pine Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Ridge's scale: May 5 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Ridge's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Ridge, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Ridge average
How we know this about Pine Ridge
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 Pine Ridge’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 Pine Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Ridge typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Pine Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Ridge typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Ridge sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 21, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Ridge?
The federal record around Pine Ridge is a meaningful one — 25 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pine Ridge?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Ridge's scale — its 4b band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Ridge'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 Pine Ridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine Ridge's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,809 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 5 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Ridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Ridge's boundary and the 1,809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pine Ridge's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Ridge's 1,809 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 Pine Ridge's 1,809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,809 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 Pine Ridge-wide figureread your own land →