Genoa, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Genoa, 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 Genoa 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 Genoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Genoa — the short answer
Genoa, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 228 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 228 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 Genoa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Genoa's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Genoa
Each reading below is measured for Genoa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGenoa runs about 194 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
MeasuredGenoa 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 Genoa is in
Genoa sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Genoa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vernon County.
What Grows in Genoa
Every plant below cleared Genoa's own zone 5a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Genoa?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Genoa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Genoa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAMBOIS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VE-13/07W/28-0075Nitrate · 650 ft
- HUNTINGTONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- U S ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Genoa 3 StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Pedrettis Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DAIRYLAND POWER COOP GENOA STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- DAIRYLAND POWER COOP GENOA STATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Dairyland Power Coop Station #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BURLINGTON NORTHERN RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ROMANCE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Clements HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Genoa'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 Genoa.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Genoa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Genoa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Genoa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Genoa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Genoa. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Genoa
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 Genoa average
Your land is one point inside Genoa
Everything above resolves to Genoa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 228 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 Genoa Average
Genoa Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Genoa
- ●One soil character for all of Genoa
- ●Frost dates read at Genoa's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Genoa's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Genoa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Genoa, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Genoa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Genoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Genoa average
How we know this about Genoa
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 Genoa’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 Genoa
When does frost risk typically end in Genoa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Genoa typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Genoa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Genoa typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Genoa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Genoa sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 10, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Genoa?
The federal record around Genoa is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), 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 Genoa?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Genoa's scale — its 5a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Genoa'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 Genoa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Genoa's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 228 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Genoa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Genoa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 24 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Genoa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Genoa's boundary and the 228 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Genoa's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Genoa's 228 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vernon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vernon 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 Vernon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Genoa's 228 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Genoa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 228 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 Genoa-wide figureread your own land →
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