Suring, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — 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 Suring, 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 Suring 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 Suring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Suring — the short answer
Suring, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 656 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 656 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 Suring's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Suring's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Suring
Each reading below is measured for Suring itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSuring runs about 166 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
MeasuredSuring 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 Suring is in
Suring sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Suring's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oconto County.
What Grows in Suring
Every plant below cleared Suring's own zone 5a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Suring?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Suring
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Suring. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHETS SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Suring Real Estate Holdings LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EHLINGER GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BRAZEAUS SPORT MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PREVEA SURINGBrownfields · 950 ft
- Krist Food Mart #78Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BELLIN HEALTH FAMILY MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LAMERS BUS LINES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MUEHL EHLINGER LBR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 21191Brownfields · 1100 ft
- SURING GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GrignonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Suring'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 Suring.
Total Sites
169
within ~10 miles of Suring
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Suring
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Suring
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Suring, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Suring — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (111 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Suring
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 Suring average
Your land is one point inside Suring
Everything above resolves to Suring as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 656 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 Suring Average
Suring Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Suring
- ●One soil character for all of Suring
- ●Frost dates read at Suring's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Suring's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Suring
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Suring, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Suring averages can't show:
We read public map data around Suring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Suring average
How we know this about Suring
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 Suring’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 Suring
When does frost risk typically end in Suring?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Suring typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Suring?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Suring typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Suring?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Suring sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 29, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Suring?
The federal record around Suring shows 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Suring?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Suring's scale — its 5a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Suring'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 Suring’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Suring's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 656 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Suring's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Suring's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 13 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Suring, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Suring's boundary and the 656 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Suring's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Suring's 656 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oconto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oconto 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 Oconto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Suring's 656 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Suring you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 656 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 Suring-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinSuring sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides