Bloomer, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bloomer, 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 Bloomer 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 Bloomer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bloomer — the short answer
Bloomer, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Bloomer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloomer's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloomer
Each reading below is measured for Bloomer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBloomer 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
MeasuredBloomer 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 Bloomer is in
Bloomer sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bloomer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chippewa County.
What Grows in Bloomer
Every plant below cleared Bloomer's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloomer?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Bloomer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloomer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLOOMER FARM PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BLOOMER TIRE CENTERBrownfields · 300 ft
- A J INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CH-30/09W/05-0001Nitrate · 400 ft
- FARMERS STORE TRUST RUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- RUFLEDTS WELDING & STEELBrownfields · 700 ft
- River Country Co-OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TRI CITY CONTRACTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RIHN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOWNTOWN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- COON PUMP & MACHINEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CITY OF BLOOMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloomer'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 Bloomer.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Bloomer
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloomer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloomer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloomer, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 100 sites within ~10 miles of Bloomer. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bloomer
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 Bloomer average
Your land is one point inside Bloomer
Everything above resolves to Bloomer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Bloomer Average
Bloomer Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Bloomer
- ●One soil character for all of Bloomer
- ●Frost dates read at Bloomer's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloomer's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloomer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloomer, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloomer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloomer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloomer average
How we know this about Bloomer
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 Bloomer’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 Bloomer
When does frost risk typically end in Bloomer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomer typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Bloomer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomer typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloomer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloomer sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 26, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloomer?
The federal record around Bloomer shows 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bloomer?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bloomer's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloomer'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 Bloomer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bloomer's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,864 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloomer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bloomer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 10 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloomer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloomer's boundary and the 1,864 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 Bloomer'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 Bloomer's 1,864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chippewa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chippewa 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 Chippewa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bloomer's 1,864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloomer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,864 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bloomer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBloomer sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides