Little Chute, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Little Chute, 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 Little Chute 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 Little Chute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Chute — the short answer
Little Chute, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 5b is Little Chute's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Chute's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Chute
Each reading below is measured for Little Chute itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Chute runs about 183 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
MeasuredLittle Chute sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Little Chute is in
Little Chute sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Little Chute's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Outagamie County is mostly North Central Hardwood Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Little Chute
Every plant below cleared Little Chute's own zone 5b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Chute?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Little Chute
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Chute. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Krueger Electric IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Van Groll Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NATIONAL PETROLEUM #102Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Kwik Trip #923Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WISCONSIN GAS CO SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHICAGO CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- U S Venture Fueling Depot #60Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NESTLE PIZZA DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- NESTLE PIZZA DIVISIONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ASCENSION MEDICAL GROUP AT LITTLE CHUTEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- JIMS PRINTING INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- VAN ZEELAND DISCOUNT TIRE & AUTOBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Chute'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 Little Chute.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Chute
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Chute
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Chute, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Little Chute — Toxics Release Inventory (109 sites) and CAFO (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Little Chute
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 Little Chute average
Your land is one point inside Little Chute
Everything above resolves to Little Chute as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Little Chute Average
Little Chute Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Little Chute
- ●One soil character for all of Little Chute
- ●Frost dates read at Little Chute's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Chute's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Chute
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Chute, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Chute averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Chute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Chute average
How we know this about Little Chute
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 Little Chute’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 Little Chute
When does frost risk typically end in Little Chute?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Chute typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Little Chute?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Chute typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Chute?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Chute sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 8, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Chute?
The federal record around Little Chute runs heavier than most — 1,598 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (888), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Little Chute?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little Chute's scale — its 5b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Chute'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 Little Chute’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little Chute's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,129 acres it covers and 1,598 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Chute's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Chute's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 22 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,598 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Chute, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Chute's boundary and the 4,129 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Little Chute sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little Chute's 4,129 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Outagamie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Outagamie 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 Outagamie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little Chute's 4,129 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Chute you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,129 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Little Chute-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinLittle Chute sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides