St. Cloud, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in St. Cloud, 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 St. Cloud 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 St. Cloud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. Cloud — the short answer
St. Cloud, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 589 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 589 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 5b is St. Cloud's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Cloud's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. Cloud
Each reading below is measured for St. Cloud itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSt. Cloud runs about 186 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
MeasuredSt. Cloud sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 St. Cloud is in
St. Cloud sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. Cloud's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fond du Lac County.
What Grows in St. Cloud
Every plant below cleared St. Cloud's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. Cloud?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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.
What's on the federal record near St. Cloud
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. Cloud. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HORN TILE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- EUGENE WILL STANDARD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- D R KOHLMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- LETEBER & EIRINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LEFEBER & EIRING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Weber Family Station LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SALCHERT MEATSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FELDNER CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Feldner Chevrolet IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FL-16/19E/25-0357Nitrate · 1500 ft
- PEOPLES FEED EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JOE MEYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Cloud'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 St. Cloud.
Total Sites
348
within ~10 miles of St. Cloud
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. Cloud
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. Cloud
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. Cloud, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of St. Cloud — CAFO (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (228 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in St. Cloud
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 St. Cloud average
Your land is one point inside St. Cloud
Everything above resolves to St. Cloud as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 589 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 St. Cloud Average
St. Cloud Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across St. Cloud
- ●One soil character for all of St. Cloud
- ●Frost dates read at St. Cloud's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Cloud's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. Cloud
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Cloud, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Cloud averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Cloud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Cloud average
How we know this about St. Cloud
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 St. Cloud’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 St. Cloud
When does frost risk typically end in St. Cloud?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Cloud typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in St. Cloud?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. Cloud typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. Cloud?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Cloud sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 6, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. Cloud?
The federal record around St. Cloud is a meaningful one — 348 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (228), 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 St. Cloud?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. Cloud's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Cloud'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 St. Cloud’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at St. Cloud's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 589 acres it covers and 348 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Cloud's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. Cloud's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 20 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 348 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. Cloud, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. Cloud's boundary and the 589 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. Cloud's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. Cloud's 589 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 St. Cloud's 589 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. Cloud you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 589 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 St. Cloud-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinSt. Cloud sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides