Wounded Knee, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Wounded Knee, 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 Wounded Knee 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 Wounded Knee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wounded Knee — the short answer
Wounded Knee, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 685 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- 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
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 685 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 Wounded Knee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wounded Knee's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wounded Knee
Each reading below is measured for Wounded Knee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWounded Knee runs about 157 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
MeasuredWounded Knee 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 Wounded Knee is in
Wounded Knee sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wounded Knee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oglala Lakota County.
What Grows in Wounded Knee
Every plant below cleared Wounded Knee's own zone 5a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wounded Knee?
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 Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (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. 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 Wounded Knee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wounded Knee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LITTLE WARRIOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 36N42W 4ABANitrate · 5.3 mi
- 36N43W32ABCDNitrate · 6.2 mi
- 36N44W23CBBNitrate · 6.8 mi
- PORCUPINE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- PORCUPINE SCHOOL BUS SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- OUR LADY OF LOURDESUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- 38N44W25DDBNitrate · 7.9 mi
- 37N41W 7BBCNitrate · 8.1 mi
- US POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- MANDERSON DAY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
Measured from Wounded Knee'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 Wounded Knee.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Wounded Knee
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
10 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wounded Knee
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Wounded Knee
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 Wounded Knee average
Your land is one point inside Wounded Knee
Everything above resolves to Wounded Knee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 685 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 Wounded Knee Average
Wounded Knee Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wounded Knee
- ●One soil character for all of Wounded Knee
- ●Frost dates read at Wounded Knee's scale: May 5 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wounded Knee's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wounded Knee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wounded Knee, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wounded Knee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wounded Knee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wounded Knee average
How we know this about Wounded Knee
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 Wounded Knee’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 Wounded Knee
When does frost risk typically end in Wounded Knee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wounded Knee typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Wounded Knee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wounded Knee 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 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wounded Knee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wounded Knee sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 25, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wounded Knee?
The federal record around Wounded Knee is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 Wounded Knee?
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 Wounded Knee's scale — its 5a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wounded Knee'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 Wounded Knee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wounded Knee's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 685 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wounded Knee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wounded Knee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 9 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wounded Knee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wounded Knee's boundary and the 685 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wounded Knee's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wounded Knee's 685 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oglala Lakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oglala Lakota 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 Oglala Lakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wounded Knee's 685 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wounded Knee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 685 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 Wounded Knee-wide figureread your own land →
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