Rusk County, in Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Rusk 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
Rusk County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Rusk 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 Rusk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rusk County — the short answer
Rusk County, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 585K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 585K 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 4a is Rusk County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rusk County's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Rusk County
Across a year, Rusk County accumulates about 1,932 growing degree days above 50°F, about 218 fewer than the middle Wisconsin county — ahead of 18 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 Rusk County
Across Rusk County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Magnor, Freeon, and Almena are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.9, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
19%
Hydric soils
26%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Rusk County
The USDA soil survey maps 31% of Rusk County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 66% drains differently: 31% moderately well drained, 18% very poorly drained.
Magnor is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Freeon (14%) and Almena (6%).
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 Rusk County
Each reading below is measured for Rusk 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 Rusk County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Rusk 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
Season length
MeasuredRusk County runs about 158 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
MeasuredRusk County sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Rusk County is in
Rusk 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 Rusk County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Rusk County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 158-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 Rusk County?
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 Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What gets applied to farmland in Rusk County
USGS estimates 53,259 lb of Glyphosate on Rusk County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (15,787 lb) and Atrazine (14,469 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 Rusk County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Rusk County — 306 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Rusk 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 Rusk County
Closest first, across Rusk County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NUTO FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OLD BEAR LAKE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Robert ElverUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WhimpysUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RONALD R YOUNGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AMERICAN MOBILE HOME SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PREVEA LADYSMITHBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NSPW LADYSMITH SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #7401Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- NIELSEN FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JUMP RIVER ELECTRIC CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #2976Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rusk 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 Rusk County.
Total Sites
306
across Rusk County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Rusk County
Severity Distribution
across Rusk County
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 Rusk 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 Rusk County average
Your land is one point inside Rusk County
Everything above resolves to Rusk County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 585K 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 Rusk County Average
Rusk County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Rusk County
- ●One soil character for all of Rusk County
- ●Frost dates read at Rusk County's scale: May 2 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rusk County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Rusk County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rusk County, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rusk County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rusk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rusk County average
How we know this about Rusk 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 Rusk County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Rusk County
When does frost risk typically end in Rusk County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rusk County typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Rusk County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rusk County sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 23, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rusk County?
The federal record around Rusk County is a meaningful one — 306 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (184), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Rusk County's scale — its 4a band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rusk 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 Rusk County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Rusk County's own scale — its own ~158-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 306 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rusk County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rusk County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Rusk CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 306 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Rusk County's boundary and the 584,646 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rusk County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Rusk 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 Rusk County — the ~158 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 Rusk County's 584,646 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 306 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 Rusk Countyread your own land →