Altoona, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Altoona, 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 Altoona 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 Altoona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Altoona — the short answer
Altoona, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Altoona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altoona's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altoona
Each reading below is measured for Altoona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAltoona runs about 176 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
MeasuredAltoona 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 Altoona is in
Altoona sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Altoona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eau Claire County.
What Grows in Altoona
Every plant below cleared Altoona's own zone 4b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altoona?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Altoona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altoona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EC-27/09W/23-0059Nitrate · 1100 ft
- EC-27/09W/23-0078Nitrate · 1300 ft
- Altoona Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALTOONA WATERWORKSPFAS · 1900 ft
- KEVIN TIETZ REFRIGERATIONBrownfields · 2300 ft
- WI DOJ EAU CLAIRE REGIONAL OFFICEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- BRUMBERG OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CHICAGO AND NORTH WESTERN ALTOONABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TRUBILT COLLISION CENTER - ALTOONABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- EAU CLAIRE CNTY HWY DEPTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Eau Claire County Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ALTOONA AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altoona'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 Altoona.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altoona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altoona
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Altoona
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 Altoona average
Your land is one point inside Altoona
Everything above resolves to Altoona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Altoona Average
Altoona Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Altoona
- ●One soil character for all of Altoona
- ●Frost dates read at Altoona's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altoona's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altoona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altoona, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altoona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altoona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altoona average
How we know this about Altoona
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 Altoona’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 Altoona
When does frost risk typically end in Altoona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altoona typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Altoona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altoona typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altoona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altoona sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 2, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altoona?
The federal record around Altoona runs heavier than most — 1,054 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (584), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Altoona?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Altoona's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altoona'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 Altoona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Altoona's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,299 acres it covers and 1,054 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altoona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Altoona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 16 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,054 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altoona, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altoona's boundary and the 3,299 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Altoona's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Altoona's 3,299 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eau Claire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eau Claire 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 Eau Claire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altoona's 3,299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altoona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,299 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Altoona-wide figureread your own land →
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