Crandon, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Crandon, 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 Crandon 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 Crandon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crandon — the short answer
Crandon, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Crandon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crandon's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crandon
Each reading below is measured for Crandon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrandon runs about 148 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCrandon 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 Crandon is in
Crandon sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Crandon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Forest County.
What Grows in Crandon
Every plant below cleared Crandon's own zone 4b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crandon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Crandon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crandon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEAH WHITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CRANDON HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Gas DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MAYS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9959Brownfields · 1400 ft
- BILLS SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FOREST CNTY HWY DEPTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- SCHULTZ OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FLANNERY TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FOREST COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FR-36/13E/32-0389Nitrate · 1900 ft
- FOREST COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crandon'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 Crandon.
Total Sites
173
within ~10 miles of Crandon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crandon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crandon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crandon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crandon — Superfund (5 sites) and Nitrate (82 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Crandon
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 Crandon average
Your land is one point inside Crandon
Everything above resolves to Crandon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Crandon Average
Crandon Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Crandon
- ●One soil character for all of Crandon
- ●Frost dates read at Crandon's scale: May 11 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crandon's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crandon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crandon, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crandon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crandon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crandon average
How we know this about Crandon
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 Crandon’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 Crandon
When does frost risk typically end in Crandon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crandon 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.
When is the first frost in Crandon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crandon typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crandon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crandon sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 22, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crandon?
The federal record around Crandon is a meaningful one — 173 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Crandon?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Crandon 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 176 to 204 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 Crandon's scale — its 4b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crandon'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 Crandon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crandon's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,341 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crandon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crandon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 6 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crandon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crandon's boundary and the 3,341 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crandon's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crandon's 3,341 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Forest County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Forest 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 Forest County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crandon's 3,341 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crandon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,341 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Crandon-wide figureread your own land →
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