Little Sturgeon, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Sturgeon, 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 Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little Sturgeon — the short answer
Little Sturgeon, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- 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 5b is Little Sturgeon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little Sturgeon's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little Sturgeon
Each reading below is measured for Little Sturgeon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle Sturgeon 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
MeasuredLittle Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon is in
Little Sturgeon sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Little Sturgeon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Door County.
What Grows in Little Sturgeon
Every plant below cleared Little Sturgeon's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Little Sturgeon?
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 Nov 2 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Little Sturgeon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little Sturgeon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DR-27/24E/03-0097Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- DR-27/24E/04-0277Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- WALTER BENTLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DR-27/24E/05-0099Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Pagels ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DR-28/24E/36-0278Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- DR-28/24E/36-0038Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- John VogelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- DELBERT E KLAPATCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- JELLYSTONE CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Whispering Sands ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- DR-28/25E/31-0283Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little Sturgeon'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 Sturgeon.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Little Sturgeon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little Sturgeon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little Sturgeon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little Sturgeon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 127 sites within ~10 miles of Little Sturgeon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Little Sturgeon
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 Sturgeon average
Your land is one point inside Little Sturgeon
Everything above resolves to Little Sturgeon 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 Little Sturgeon Average
Little Sturgeon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Little Sturgeon
- ●One soil character for all of Little Sturgeon
- ●Frost dates read at Little Sturgeon's scale: Apr 22 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little Sturgeon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little Sturgeon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little Sturgeon, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little Sturgeon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little Sturgeon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little Sturgeon average
How we know this about Little Sturgeon
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 Sturgeon’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 Sturgeon
When does frost risk typically end in Little Sturgeon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little Sturgeon typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little Sturgeon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little Sturgeon sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 19, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little Sturgeon?
The federal record around Little Sturgeon is a meaningful one — 203 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 I protect my plants from frost in Little Sturgeon?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little Sturgeon's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little Sturgeon'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 Sturgeon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little Sturgeon's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,494 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little Sturgeon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little Sturgeon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Nov 2 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little Sturgeon, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little Sturgeon's boundary and the 1,494 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Little Sturgeon's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little Sturgeon's 1,494 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Door County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Door 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 Door County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little Sturgeon's 1,494 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little Sturgeon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,494 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Sturgeon-wide figureread your own land →
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