Beloit, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Beloit, 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 Beloit 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 Beloit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beloit — the short answer
Beloit, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Beloit's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beloit's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beloit
Each reading below is measured for Beloit itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeloit runs about 195 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
MeasuredBeloit 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 Beloit is in
Beloit sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beloit's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rock County.
What Grows in Beloit
Every plant below cleared Beloit's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beloit?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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 Beloit
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beloit. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED STARS INCToxics Release Inventory · 350 ft
- United IndustriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ARCHIE SHAWUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ARROW INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROYCE PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CARL BALKIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- METALLIC BONDS LTDBrownfields · 1200 ft
- HENDRICKS COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Citgo BeloitUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COUNTRY STORE NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PENSKE AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1600 ft
- PRIME CAST INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beloit'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 Beloit.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beloit
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beloit
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beloit, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Beloit. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Beloit
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 Beloit average
Your land is one point inside Beloit
Everything above resolves to Beloit as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Beloit Average
Beloit Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Beloit
- ●One soil character for all of Beloit
- ●Frost dates read at Beloit's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beloit's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beloit
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beloit, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beloit averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beloit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beloit average
How we know this about Beloit
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 Beloit’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 Beloit
When does frost risk typically end in Beloit?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beloit typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Beloit?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beloit 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beloit?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beloit sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 9, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beloit?
The federal record around Beloit is a meaningful one — 660 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (365), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Beloit?
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 Beloit's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beloit'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 Beloit’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beloit's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,117 acres it covers and 660 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beloit's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beloit's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 660 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beloit, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beloit's boundary and the 11,117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beloit'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 Beloit's 11,117 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rock 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 Rock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beloit's 11,117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beloit you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,117 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Beloit-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBeloit sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides