Prentice, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prentice, 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 Prentice 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 Prentice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prentice — the short answer
Prentice, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- 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 4a is Prentice's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prentice's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prentice
Each reading below is measured for Prentice itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrentice runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPrentice sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Prentice is in
Prentice sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Prentice's own centroid rather than borrowed from Price County.
What Grows in Prentice
Every plant below cleared Prentice's own zone 4a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prentice?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Prentice
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prentice. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRENTICE HARDWARE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PRENTICE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ROEHL TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NUSSBERGER BROS TRUCKING CO INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AUTO DOCK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- V&H INC TRUCKSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HAROLD W JOHNSON JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CERAMIC VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SPECSYS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- SPECSYS INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MULTITEK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MULTITEK INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prentice'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 Prentice.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Prentice
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prentice
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prentice
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prentice, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Prentice. 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 Prentice
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 Prentice average
Your land is one point inside Prentice
Everything above resolves to Prentice 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 Prentice Average
Prentice Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Prentice
- ●One soil character for all of Prentice
- ●Frost dates read at Prentice's scale: May 11 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prentice's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prentice
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prentice, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prentice averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prentice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prentice average
How we know this about Prentice
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 Prentice’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 Prentice
When does frost risk typically end in Prentice?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prentice typically lands around May 11, 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 Jun 1.
When is the first frost in Prentice?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prentice typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prentice?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prentice sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 22, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prentice?
The federal record around Prentice shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Prentice?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Prentice rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Prentice's scale — its 4a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prentice'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 Prentice’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prentice's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,292 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prentice's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prentice's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 6 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prentice, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prentice's boundary and the 1,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prentice'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 Prentice's 1,292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Price County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Price 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 Price County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prentice's 1,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prentice you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Prentice-wide figureread your own land →
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