Ripon, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ripon, 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 Ripon 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 Ripon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ripon — the short answer
Ripon, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Ripon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ripon's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ripon
Each reading below is measured for Ripon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRipon runs about 189 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
MeasuredRipon 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 Ripon is in
Ripon sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ripon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fond du Lac County.
What Grows in Ripon
Every plant below cleared Ripon's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ripon?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Ripon
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Ripon, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ripon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ripon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B&B AUTO YARDSuperfund · 150 ft
- BRAUNS RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CLARK SERVICE STATION #0389Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BRAUNS FAMILY RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Piggly WigglyUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MIKES FUEL SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- OPEN PANTRY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DREWS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RIPON AMOCOBrownfields · 600 ft
- Ripon AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CITY OF RIPONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CONDON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ripon'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 Ripon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ripon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ripon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ripon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 220 sites within ~10 miles of Ripon. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Ripon
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 Ripon average
Your land is one point inside Ripon
Everything above resolves to Ripon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Ripon Average
Ripon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Ripon
- ●One soil character for all of Ripon
- ●Frost dates read at Ripon's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ripon's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ripon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ripon, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ripon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ripon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ripon average
How we know this about Ripon
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 Ripon’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 Ripon
When does frost risk typically end in Ripon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ripon typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Ripon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ripon typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ripon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ripon sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 8, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ripon?
The federal record around Ripon is a meaningful one — 332 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (220), the nearest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ripon?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ripon's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ripon'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 Ripon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ripon's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,231 acres it covers and 332 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ripon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ripon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 22 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 332 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ripon, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ripon's boundary and the 3,231 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ripon's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Riponlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ripon's 3,231 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fond du Lac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fond du Lac 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 Fond du Lac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ripon's 3,231 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ripon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,231 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Ripon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinRipon sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides