Renner Corner, 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Renner Corner, 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 Renner Corner 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 Renner Corner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Renner Corner — the short answer
Renner Corner, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 824 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 824 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 Renner Corner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Renner Corner's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Renner Corner
Each reading below is measured for Renner Corner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRenner Corner runs about 176 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
MeasuredRenner Corner 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 Renner Corner is in
Renner Corner sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Renner Corner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Minnehaha County.
What Grows in Renner Corner
Every plant below cleared Renner Corner's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Renner Corner?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Renner Corner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Renner Corner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RENNER CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 102N49W15CBBBNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 102N49W09BBAB (2)Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 102N49W09BBAB (MA80L)Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 102N49W17BABDNitrate · 1.9 mi
- 102N49W23CAC2Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 102N49W23CACNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 102N49W 8CDCCNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 102N49W22CCCD2Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 102N49W22CCCDNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 102N48W18BBBBNitrate · 2.6 mi
- SPADERSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Renner Corner'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 Renner Corner.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Renner Corner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Renner Corner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Renner Corner, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Renner Corner. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Renner Corner
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 Renner Corner average
Your land is one point inside Renner Corner
Everything above resolves to Renner Corner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 824 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 Renner Corner Average
Renner Corner Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Renner Corner
- ●One soil character for all of Renner Corner
- ●Frost dates read at Renner Corner's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Renner Corner's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Renner Corner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Renner Corner, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Renner Corner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Renner Corner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Renner Corner average
How we know this about Renner Corner
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 Renner Corner’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 Renner Corner
When does frost risk typically end in Renner Corner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Renner Corner typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Renner Corner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Renner Corner typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Renner Corner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Renner Corner sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 1, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Renner Corner?
The federal record around Renner Corner is a meaningful one — 982 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (335), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Renner Corner?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Renner Corner's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Renner Corner'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 Renner Corner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Renner Corner's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 824 acres it covers and 982 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Renner Corner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Renner Corner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 15 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 982 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Renner Corner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Renner Corner's boundary and the 824 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Renner Corner's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Renner Corner's 824 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Minnehaha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Minnehaha 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 Minnehaha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Renner Corner's 824 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Renner Corner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 824 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Renner Corner-wide figureread your own land →