Tomah, 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 Tomah, 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 Tomah 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 Tomah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tomah — the short answer
Tomah, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Tomah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tomah's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tomah
Each reading below is measured for Tomah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTomah runs about 162 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
MeasuredTomah 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 Tomah is in
Tomah sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tomah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Tomah
Every plant below cleared Tomah's own zone 4b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tomah?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 9 — 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 Tomah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tomah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CULPEPER WOOD PRESERVERSToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- SOO RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TOMAH CO OP SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Lark InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CAR QUESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Caseys General Store #1933Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Mize Insurance CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DEPT OF NATURAL RESOURCESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KRESS MONUMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TOMAH WATERWORKSPFAS · 1500 ft
- OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRY INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- WI ARMY NATL GUARD TOMAHBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tomah'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 Tomah.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tomah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tomah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tomah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tomah — Underground Storage Tanks (153 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Tomah
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 Tomah average
Your land is one point inside Tomah
Everything above resolves to Tomah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Tomah Average
Tomah Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Tomah
- ●One soil character for all of Tomah
- ●Frost dates read at Tomah's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tomah's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tomah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tomah, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tomah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tomah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tomah average
How we know this about Tomah
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 Tomah’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 Tomah
When does frost risk typically end in Tomah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tomah 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 Tomah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tomah typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tomah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tomah sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tomah?
The federal record around Tomah runs heavier than most — 229 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tomah?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tomah's scale — its 4b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tomah'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 Tomah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tomah's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,038 acres it covers and 229 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tomah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tomah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 229 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tomah, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tomah's boundary and the 5,038 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tomah's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tomah's 5,038 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tomah's 5,038 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tomah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,038 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Tomah-wide figureread your own land →
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