New Odanah, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Odanah, 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 New Odanah 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 New Odanah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Odanah — the short answer
New Odanah, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 New Odanah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Odanah's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Odanah
Each reading below is measured for New Odanah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Odanah runs about 170 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
MeasuredNew Odanah 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 New Odanah is in
New Odanah sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at New Odanah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ashland County.
What Grows in New Odanah
Every plant below cleared New Odanah's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Odanah?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 New Odanah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Odanah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AS-48/02W/32-0094Nitrate · 900 ft
- AS-48/02W/32-0069Nitrate · 900 ft
- BAD RIVER INDIAN RESERVATIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PAMIDA INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- AS-48/02W/31-0278Nitrate · 2300 ft
- Bad River Tribe Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AS-48/02W/30-0088 U.S.I.S.Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- J & S Quik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- AS-48/03W/25-0268Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- AS-48/03W/25-0269Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- AS-48/03W/36-0280Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- MORRISON SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Odanah'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 New Odanah.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of New Odanah
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Odanah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Odanah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Odanah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Odanah — Nitrate (68 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in New Odanah
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 New Odanah average
Your land is one point inside New Odanah
Everything above resolves to New Odanah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 New Odanah Average
New Odanah Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across New Odanah
- ●One soil character for all of New Odanah
- ●Frost dates read at New Odanah's scale: May 6 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Odanah's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Odanah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Odanah, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Odanah averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Odanah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Odanah average
How we know this about New Odanah
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 New Odanah’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 New Odanah
When does frost risk typically end in New Odanah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Odanah typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in New Odanah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Odanah typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Odanah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Odanah sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Oct 9, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Odanah?
The federal record around New Odanah is a meaningful one — 110 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 New Odanah?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Odanah's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Odanah'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 New Odanah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Odanah's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,553 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Odanah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Odanah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 23 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Odanah, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Odanah's boundary and the 1,553 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Odanah's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Odanah's 1,553 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashland 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 Ashland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Odanah's 1,553 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Odanah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,553 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 New Odanah-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinNew Odanah sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides