Mosinee, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mosinee, 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 Mosinee 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 Mosinee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mosinee — the short answer
Mosinee, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Mosinee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mosinee's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mosinee
Each reading below is measured for Mosinee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMosinee runs about 175 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
MeasuredMosinee 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 Mosinee is in
Mosinee sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mosinee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marathon County.
What Grows in Mosinee
Every plant below cleared Mosinee's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mosinee?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Mosinee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mosinee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DNR RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Clifford R BushUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MOSINEE DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- GORDYS 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Kwik Trip #440Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CQ OF MOSINEE WI #2344Brownfields · 1900 ft
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN CWA RCAGBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Wagner East Town Shell LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WISCONSIN CENTRAL LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SMITH BROS FORDBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CENTRAL WISCONSIN AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mosinee'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 Mosinee.
Total Sites
425
within ~10 miles of Mosinee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mosinee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mosinee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mosinee, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 265 sites within ~10 miles of Mosinee. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Mosinee
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 Mosinee average
Your land is one point inside Mosinee
Everything above resolves to Mosinee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Mosinee Average
Mosinee Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Mosinee
- ●One soil character for all of Mosinee
- ●Frost dates read at Mosinee's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mosinee's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mosinee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mosinee, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mosinee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mosinee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mosinee average
How we know this about Mosinee
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 Mosinee’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 Mosinee
When does frost risk typically end in Mosinee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mosinee typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Mosinee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mosinee typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mosinee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mosinee sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 2, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mosinee?
The federal record around Mosinee is a meaningful one — 425 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (265), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Mosinee?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mosinee's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mosinee'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 Mosinee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mosinee's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,018 acres it covers and 425 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mosinee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mosinee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 16 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 425 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mosinee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mosinee's boundary and the 5,018 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mosinee'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 Mosinee's 5,018 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marathon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marathon 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 Marathon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mosinee's 5,018 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mosinee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,018 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 Mosinee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinMosinee sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides