Fall River, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fall River, 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 Fall River 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 Fall River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fall River — the short answer
Fall River, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Fall River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fall River's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fall River
Each reading below is measured for Fall River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFall River runs about 189 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
MeasuredFall River sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Fall River is in
Fall River sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fall River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Fall River
Every plant below cleared Fall River's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fall River?
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 Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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.
Documented around Fall River
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Fall River, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fall River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fall River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FALL RIVER PUBLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CO-11/12E/34-0037Nitrate · 350 ft
- SCHMIDS BLACK GOLD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LOVIALA ROBBINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TERRA INTERNATIONAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CO-11/12E/34-0211Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- TRAMBURG MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FALL RIVER FOUNDRY COToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FALL RIVER FOUNDRY COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- EK MACHINE CO INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- EK MACHINE CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- Fall River FoundryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fall River'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 Fall River.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Fall River
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fall River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fall River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fall River, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Fall River. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fall River
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 Fall River average
Your land is one point inside Fall River
Everything above resolves to Fall River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 Fall River Average
Fall River Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fall River
- ●One soil character for all of Fall River
- ●Frost dates read at Fall River's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fall River's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fall River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fall River, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fall River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fall River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fall River average
How we know this about Fall River
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fall River’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Fall River
When does frost risk typically end in Fall River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fall River typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Fall River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fall River typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fall River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fall River sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fall River?
The federal record around Fall River is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (121), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Fall River?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fall River's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fall River'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 Fall River’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fall River's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,209 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fall River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fall River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fall River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fall River's boundary and the 1,209 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fall River's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fall Riverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fall River's 1,209 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fall River's 1,209 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fall River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,209 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 Fall River-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinFall River sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides