La Crosse, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in La Crosse, 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 La Crosse 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 La Crosse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Crosse — the short answer
La Crosse, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 364 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 364 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 La Crosse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Crosse's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Crosse
Each reading below is measured for La Crosse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Crosse runs about 191 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
MeasuredLa Crosse 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 La Crosse is in
La Crosse sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at La Crosse's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: LaPorte County is mostly Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in La Crosse
Every plant below cleared La Crosse's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Crosse?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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.
Documented around La Crosse
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from La Crosse, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near La Crosse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Crosse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ROBERT A KAPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SCHAFER FARMS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BUCKEYE PIPE LINE CO LP-KOUTS STATION (KZ)Brownfields · 6.1 mi
- RALSTON PAVEMENT COMPNYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- NW-13 S. WANATAH, IND.Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- PORTER COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- K A T INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- GINGERICH PETROLEUM SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- HEINOLD FEEDSToxics Release Inventory · 6.9 mi
- HEINOLD FEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- KOUTS READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Crosse'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 La Crosse.
Total Sites
99
within ~10 miles of La Crosse
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Crosse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Crosse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Crosse, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of La Crosse. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in La Crosse
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 La Crosse average
Your land is one point inside La Crosse
Everything above resolves to La Crosse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 364 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 La Crosse Average
La Crosse Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across La Crosse
- ●One soil character for all of La Crosse
- ●Frost dates read at La Crosse's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Crosse's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Crosse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Crosse, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Crosse averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Crosse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Crosse average
How we know this about La Crosse
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 La Crosse’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 La Crosse
When does frost risk typically end in La Crosse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Crosse typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in La Crosse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Crosse typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Crosse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Crosse sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 9, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Crosse?
The federal record around La Crosse shows 99 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 La Crosse?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Crosse's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Crosse'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 La Crosse’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at La Crosse's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 364 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Crosse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Crosse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 23 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Crosse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Crosse's boundary and the 364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- La Crosse sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of La Crosselydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Crosse's 364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaPorte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaPorte County
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom LaPorte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Crosse's 364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Crosse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 364 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 La Crosse-wide figureread your own land →