Appleton, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Appleton, 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 Appleton 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 Appleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Appleton — the short answer
Appleton, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 166 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- 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 Appleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Appleton's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Appleton
Each reading below is measured for Appleton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAppleton runs about 166 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
MeasuredAppleton 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 Appleton is in
Appleton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Appleton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Swift County.
What Grows in Appleton
Every plant below cleared Appleton's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Appleton?
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 7 — 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 Appleton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Appleton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APPLETON COLLECTION SYSTEMBrownfields · 250 ft
- APPLETON TACCBrownfields · 350 ft
- EHRENBERG PUBLISHING, INC.Brownfields · 650 ft
- Jambd Inc/cenex Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- LEWIS FAMILY DRUG #36Brownfields · 850 ft
- APPLETON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Soo Line RailroadUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- APPLETON 52 WINGBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FMS 7 - APPLETONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- APPLETON POWER EQUIMENT LLCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MNDOT D4 APPLETONBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ISD 2853 APPLETON BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Appleton'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 Appleton.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Appleton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Appleton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Appleton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Appleton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Appleton. 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 Appleton
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 Appleton average
Your land is one point inside Appleton
Everything above resolves to Appleton 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 Appleton Average
Appleton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Appleton
- ●One soil character for all of Appleton
- ●Frost dates read at Appleton's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Appleton's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Appleton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Appleton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Appleton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Appleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Appleton average
How we know this about Appleton
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 Appleton’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 Appleton
When does frost risk typically end in Appleton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Appleton 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 Appleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Appleton typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Appleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Appleton sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 23, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Appleton?
The federal record around Appleton shows 72 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Brownfields 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 Appleton?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Appleton's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Appleton'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 Appleton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Appleton's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,209 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Appleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Appleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 7 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Appleton, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Appleton's boundary and the 1,209 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Appleton's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Appleton's 1,209 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Swift County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Swift County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Swift County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Appleton's 1,209 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Appleton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,209 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Appleton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaAppleton sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides