Oneida County, in 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, cilantro, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Oneida County lies within the Northwoods (Northern Wisconsin) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Oneida County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Oneida County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Oneida County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oneida County — the short answer
Oneida County, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 713K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 713K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Oneida County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oneida County's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Oneida County
Across a year, Oneida County accumulates about 1,651 growing degree days above 50°F, about 499 fewer than the middle Wisconsin county — ahead of 8 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Oneida County
Across Oneida County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Padus, Sayner, and Vilas are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.9, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
32%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Oneida County
The USDA soil survey maps 27% of Oneida County as well drained — but another 64% drains differently: 26% very poorly drained, 16% excessively drained.
Padus is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Sayner (12%) and Vilas (10%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Oneida County
Each reading below is measured for Oneida County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Oneida County are well drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Oneida County runs about pH 5.0–5.9, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 32% of Oneida County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredOneida County runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
The kind of country Oneida County is in
Oneida County sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Oneida County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Oneida County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 147-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile.
Is it too late to plant in Oneida County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around Oneida County
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly7 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Oneida County
USGS estimates 1,524 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Oneida County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (1,165 lb) and Glyphosate (1,142 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Oneida County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Oneida County — 631 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Oneida County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Oneida County
Closest first, across Oneida County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREG KUCKKAHNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ROCKING HORSE CAFE DANS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SCHILLEMANS BUS SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Town Of NewboldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PINE LAKE TN GARAGEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- RONALD KECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- William CrappUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BROWNS TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Bowen's Bus Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- RAYMOND READERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- DANNY SCHOLTENUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Lelah Starks Elite Potato FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oneida County'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 Oneida County.
Total Sites
631
across Oneida County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Oneida County
Severity Distribution
across Oneida County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oneida County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 486 sites across Oneida County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Oneida County
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 Oneida County average
Your land is one point inside Oneida County
Everything above resolves to Oneida County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 713K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Oneida County Average
Oneida County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Oneida County
- ●One soil character for all of Oneida County
- ●Frost dates read at Oneida County's scale: May 11 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oneida County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Oneida County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oneida County, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oneida County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oneida County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oneida County average
How we know this about Oneida County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Oneida County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Oneida County
When does frost risk typically end in Oneida County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oneida County typically lands around May 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 Jun 1.
How long is the growing season in Oneida County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oneida County sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 21, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oneida County?
The federal record around Oneida County is a meaningful one — 631 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (486), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in Oneida County?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Oneida County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Oneida County's scale — its 4b band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oneida County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Wisconsin's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Oneida County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Oneida County's own scale — its own ~147-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 631 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oneida County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oneida County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Oneida CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 631 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Oneida County's boundary and the 712,924 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Oneida County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Oneida County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Oneida County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Oneida County — the ~147 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oneida County's 712,924 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 631 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Oneida Countyread your own land →