Trempealeau County, in Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Trempealeau County lies within the Driftless Area — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Trempealeau County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Trempealeau County — the short answer
Trempealeau County, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 469K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 469K 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 Trempealeau County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Trempealeau County's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Trempealeau County
Across a year, Trempealeau County accumulates about 2,235 growing degree days above 50°F, about 85 more than the middle Wisconsin county — ahead of 44 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 Trempealeau County
Across Trempealeau County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Seaton, Hixton, and Boone are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Trempealeau County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Trempealeau County as well drained — but another 37% drains differently: 19% excessively drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Seaton is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Hixton (12%) and Boone (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 Trempealeau County
Each reading below is measured for Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Trempealeau County runs about pH 5.8–6.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredTrempealeau County runs about 168 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
MeasuredTrempealeau County 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 Trempealeau County is in
Trempealeau County sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Trempealeau County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Trempealeau County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 168-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 Trempealeau 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 Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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.
Documented around Trempealeau County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Trempealeau County
USGS estimates 108,300 lb of Glyphosate on Trempealeau County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (74,515 lb) and Metolachlor-s (65,252 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 Trempealeau County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Trempealeau County — 483 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County
Closest first, across Trempealeau County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WDOT - HWY 95 RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- TR-21/08W/33-0063Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- TREMPEALEAU COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- WHITEHALL VETRINARY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- TR-22/08W/26-0003Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- TOWN OF LINCOLN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- WHITEHALL MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- WHITEHALL VETERINARY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- GUNDERSEN LUTHERAN - WHITEHALL CLINICBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- TR-22/08W/26-0023Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- SUNSET ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- S & S WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County.
Total Sites
483
across Trempealeau County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Trempealeau County
Severity Distribution
across Trempealeau County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Trempealeau County, two things run higher than the national average across Trempealeau County — CAFO (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (317 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County average
Your land is one point inside Trempealeau County
Everything above resolves to Trempealeau County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 469K 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 Trempealeau County Average
Trempealeau County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Trempealeau County
- ●One soil character for all of Trempealeau County
- ●Frost dates read at Trempealeau County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Trempealeau County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Trempealeau County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Trempealeau County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Trempealeau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Trempealeau County average
How we know this about Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Trempealeau County
When does frost risk typically end in Trempealeau County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Trempealeau County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Trempealeau County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Trempealeau County sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 29, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Trempealeau County?
The federal record around Trempealeau County is a meaningful one — 483 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (317), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.1 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 Trempealeau County's scale — its 4b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Trempealeau County's own scale — its own ~168-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 483 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Trempealeau County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Trempealeau County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Trempealeau CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 483 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Trempealeau County's boundary and the 469,098 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Trempealeau County sitting wholly inside the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Trempealeau County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County — the ~168 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 Trempealeau County's 469,098 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 483 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 Trempealeau Countyread your own land →