Sisseton, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sisseton, 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 Sisseton 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 Sisseton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sisseton — the short answer
Sisseton, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Sisseton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sisseton's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sisseton
Each reading below is measured for Sisseton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSisseton runs about 170 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
MeasuredSisseton 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 Sisseton is in
Sisseton sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sisseton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roberts County.
What Grows in Sisseton
Every plant below cleared Sisseton's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sisseton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 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 Sisseton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sisseton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K & K CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- K & K CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- EMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BROOKS MOTORS INC.Brownfields · 1200 ft
- SUPER VALU GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SOUTHSIDE SERVICE & BULK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STILLSON OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BAUS OIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- J.A. DADYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JB AUTO SALESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- B.I.A. SISSETON AGENCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sisseton'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 Sisseton.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Sisseton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sisseton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sisseton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sisseton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 144 sites within ~10 miles of Sisseton. 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 Sisseton
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 Sisseton average
Your land is one point inside Sisseton
Everything above resolves to Sisseton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 Sisseton Average
Sisseton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Sisseton
- ●One soil character for all of Sisseton
- ●Frost dates read at Sisseton's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sisseton's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sisseton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sisseton, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sisseton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sisseton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sisseton average
How we know this about Sisseton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Sisseton’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Sisseton
When does frost risk typically end in Sisseton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sisseton 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 Sisseton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sisseton 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 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sisseton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sisseton sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 27, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sisseton?
The federal record around Sisseton is a meaningful one — 176 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (144), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sisseton?
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 Sisseton's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sisseton'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 Sisseton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sisseton's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,018 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sisseton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sisseton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 11 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sisseton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sisseton's boundary and the 1,018 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sisseton's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sisseton's 1,018 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roberts County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roberts 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 Roberts County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sisseton's 1,018 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sisseton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,018 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sisseton-wide figureread your own land →