Plainview Colony, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Plainview Colony, 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 Plainview Colony 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 Plainview Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Plainview Colony — the short answer
Plainview Colony, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 135 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 135 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 Plainview Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plainview Colony's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plainview Colony
Each reading below is measured for Plainview Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlainview Colony runs about 163 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
MeasuredPlainview Colony 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 Plainview Colony is in
Plainview Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Plainview Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Edmunds County.
What Grows in Plainview Colony
Every plant below cleared Plainview Colony's own zone 4b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plainview Colony?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Plainview Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plainview Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 125N68W26CBADNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 124N68W26ABANitrate · 3.4 mi
- 125N68W14CDCBNitrate · 3.8 mi
- 125N67W32AAAANitrate · 4.3 mi
- 123N68W15CCCCNitrate · 8.2 mi
- SD DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- AVANTARA IPSWICHBrownfields · 9.1 mi
- HOWARD SAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- KEN SHELL EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- EDMUNDS COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- 123N68W27BBCCNitrate · 9.4 mi
- 123N68W27BBCC3Nitrate · 9.4 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plainview Colony'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 Plainview Colony.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plainview Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plainview Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plainview Colony, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Plainview Colony. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Plainview Colony
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 Plainview Colony average
Your land is one point inside Plainview Colony
Everything above resolves to Plainview Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 135 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 Plainview Colony Average
Plainview Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Plainview Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Plainview Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Plainview Colony's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plainview Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plainview Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plainview Colony, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plainview Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plainview Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plainview Colony average
How we know this about Plainview Colony
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 Plainview Colony’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 Plainview Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Plainview Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plainview Colony typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Plainview Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plainview Colony typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plainview Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plainview Colony sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 24, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plainview Colony?
The federal record around Plainview Colony is light — 25 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Plainview Colony?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Plainview Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plainview Colony'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 Plainview Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Plainview Colony's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 135 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plainview Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plainview Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 8 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plainview Colony, the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plainview Colony's boundary and the 135 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plainview Colony's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Plainview Colony's 135 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edmunds County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edmunds 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 Edmunds County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plainview Colony's 135 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plainview Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 135 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Plainview Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaPlainview Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides