Adell, Wisconsin, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Adell, 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 Adell 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 Adell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Adell — the short answer
Adell, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 357 acres of town.
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 357 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 Adell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Adell's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Adell
Each reading below is measured for Adell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAdell runs about 183 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
MeasuredAdell 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 Adell is in
Adell sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Adell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sheboygan County.
What Grows in Adell
Every plant below cleared Adell's own zone 5b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Adell?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Adell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Adell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB-13/21E/02-0073Nitrate · 1300 ft
- ADELL AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- A & L RentalsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ADELL MOTOR SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHEBOYGAN COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FRANK HAASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ARLEE TITELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Adell Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JAMES B DOWNING & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ADELL WHEY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MILK SPECIALTIES GLOBAL - ADELLToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- MILK SPECIALTIES GLOBAL - ADELLBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Adell'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 Adell.
Total Sites
521
within ~10 miles of Adell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Adell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Adell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Adell, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Adell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Adell
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 Adell average
Your land is one point inside Adell
Everything above resolves to Adell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 357 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 Adell Average
Adell Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Adell
- ●One soil character for all of Adell
- ●Frost dates read at Adell's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Adell's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Adell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Adell, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Adell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Adell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Adell average
How we know this about Adell
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 Adell’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 Adell
When does frost risk typically end in Adell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Adell 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 Adell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Adell typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Adell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Adell sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 6, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Adell?
The federal record around Adell is a meaningful one — 521 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (287), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Adell?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Adell's scale — its 5b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Adell'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 Adell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Adell's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 357 acres it covers and 521 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Adell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Adell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 20 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 521 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Adell, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Adell's boundary and the 357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Adell's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Adell's 357 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sheboygan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sheboygan County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sheboygan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Adell's 357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Adell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 357 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Adell-wide figureread your own land →