Winner, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Winner, 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 Winner 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 Winner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winner — the short answer
Winner, South Dakota: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- 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 5b is Winner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winner's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winner
Each reading below is measured for Winner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinner runs about 180 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
MeasuredWinner sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Winner is in
Winner sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Winner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tripp County.
What Grows in Winner
Every plant below cleared Winner's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winner?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Winner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- RONALD W CONNELLYBrownfields · 850 ft
- SCHAFFER & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BROWNIE'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE # 2394Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LIL FELLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TRIPP CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NORTHWESTERN BELL TELE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WHITLEY CENTRAL DIST COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GAS 'N' GITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DENNYS MODERN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- US POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winner'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 Winner.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winner, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Winner. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Winner
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 Winner average
Your land is one point inside Winner
Everything above resolves to Winner 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 Winner Average
Winner Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Winner
- ●One soil character for all of Winner
- ●Frost dates read at Winner's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winner's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winner, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winner average
How we know this about Winner
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 Winner’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 Winner
When does frost risk typically end in Winner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winner typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Winner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winner typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winner sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 3, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winner?
The federal record around Winner shows 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Winner?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winner's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winner'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 Winner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Winner's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,467 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 17 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winner's boundary and the 1,467 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winner's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winner's 1,467 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tripp County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tripp 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 Tripp County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winner's 1,467 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,467 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 Winner-wide figureread your own land →
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