Appleton, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 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, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- 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
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Appleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Appleton's 187-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 187 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 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 Appleton is in
Appleton sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Appleton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Outagamie County is mostly North Central Hardwood Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Appleton
Every plant below cleared Appleton's own zone 5b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin 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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (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. 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.
- FEDEX EXPRESS CORPORATION - ATWR/ATWABrownfields · 1300 ft
- TIMBER ROOTS MTDBrownfields · 1300 ft
- THEDA CARE PHYSICIANS ORTHOPEDICS PLUS - APPLETONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Appleton Medical CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- THEDACARE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER APPLETONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MAYS UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GRAFFS AUTO TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- ELDON A SCHULTZ REALTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BEND INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BEND INDUSTRIES APPLETONToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- Fed Milk MarketingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HOLIDAY STATION - FORMERLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 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.
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, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of Appleton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
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 16K 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 5b, averaged across Appleton
- ●One soil character for all of Appleton
- ●Frost dates read at Appleton's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Appleton's 5b
- ✓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, Wisconsin — 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 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Appleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Appleton 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Appleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Appleton sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 9, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Appleton?
The federal record around Appleton runs heavier than most — 1,799 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (990), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Appleton?
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 Appleton's scale — its 5b band and its 187-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 ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,270 acres it covers and 1,799 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Appleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Appleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 23 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,799 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Appleton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Appleton's boundary and the 16,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Appleton sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Appleton's 16,270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Outagamie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Outagamie 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 Outagamie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Appleton's 16,270 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 16,270 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Appleton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinAppleton sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides