Turton, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Turton, 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 Turton 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 Turton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Turton — the short answer
Turton, South Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 235 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 235 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 4a is Turton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Turton's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Turton
Each reading below is measured for Turton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTurton runs about 162 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
MeasuredTurton sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Turton is in
Turton sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Turton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spink County.
What Grows in Turton
Every plant below cleared Turton's own zone 4a and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Turton?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Turton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Turton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLAND FARMERS UNION OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 119N59W32BBBBNitrate · 6.9 mi
- 117N60W 1CBBBNitrate · 7.0 mi
- HARVEYS SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- HEARNEN BROS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- 117N60W12BBBB (2)Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- CONDE SCHOOL DIST 56-1Underground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- 117N60W12BBBNitrate · 7.4 mi
- 120N60W32CACDNitrate · 7.5 mi
- 118N59W 9CCCCNitrate · 7.6 mi
- GROTON FARMERS ELEVUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- 117N61W 8BBBCNitrate · 7.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Turton'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 Turton.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Turton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
56 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Turton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Turton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Turton. 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 Turton
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 Turton average
Your land is one point inside Turton
Everything above resolves to Turton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 235 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 Turton Average
Turton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Turton
- ●One soil character for all of Turton
- ●Frost dates read at Turton's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Turton's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Turton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Turton, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Turton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Turton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Turton average
How we know this about Turton
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 Turton’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 Turton
When does frost risk typically end in Turton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Turton typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Turton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Turton typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Turton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Turton sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Turton?
The federal record around Turton shows 62 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Turton?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Turton's scale — its 4a band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Turton'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 Turton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Turton's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 235 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Turton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Turton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Turton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Turton's boundary and the 235 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Turton's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Turton's 235 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spink County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spink 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 Spink County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Turton's 235 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Turton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 235 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.4 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 Turton-wide figureread your own land →
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