Plum City, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Plum City, 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 Plum City 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 Plum City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Plum City — the short answer
Plum City, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 667 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 667 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 4b is Plum City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plum City's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plum City
Each reading below is measured for Plum City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlum City runs about 174 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
MeasuredPlum City sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Plum City is in
Plum City sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Plum City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pierce County.
What Grows in Plum City
Every plant below cleared Plum City's own zone 4b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plum City?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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. 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 Plum City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plum City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL #21568Brownfields · 550 ft
- HOPHANS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Corner GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KENTS AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 750 ft
- TOWN OF UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PLUM CITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-ET554Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Sandys Grocery & Gas IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PETER J HINCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Harry HewittUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MAIDEN ROCK TOWN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WAYNE IMPLEMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EXILE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plum City'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 Plum City.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Plum City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plum City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plum City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plum City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Plum City. 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 Plum City
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 Plum City average
Your land is one point inside Plum City
Everything above resolves to Plum City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 667 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 Plum City Average
Plum City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Plum City
- ●One soil character for all of Plum City
- ●Frost dates read at Plum City's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plum City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plum City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plum City, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plum City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plum City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plum City average
How we know this about Plum City
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 Plum City’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 Plum City
When does frost risk typically end in Plum City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plum City typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Plum City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plum City 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 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plum City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plum City sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 2, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plum City?
The federal record around Plum City shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Plum City?
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 Plum City's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plum City'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 Plum City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Plum City's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 667 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plum City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plum City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 16 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plum City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plum City's boundary and the 667 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plum City's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Plum City's 667 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plum City's 667 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plum City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 667 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Plum City-wide figureread your own land →
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