Trempealeau, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — 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, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Trempealeau, 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 Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Trempealeau — the short answer
Trempealeau, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- 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 5a is Trempealeau's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Trempealeau's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Trempealeau
Each reading below is measured for Trempealeau itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTrempealeau runs about 198 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
MeasuredTrempealeau 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 Trempealeau is in
Trempealeau sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Trempealeau's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trempealeau County.
What Grows in Trempealeau
Every plant below cleared Trempealeau's own zone 5a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Trempealeau?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Trempealeau
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Trempealeau. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TREMPEALEAU BUDGET MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BUDGET MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TR-18/09W/26-0002Nitrate · 1100 ft
- The River StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- U S ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- LOCK & DAM # 6Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Trempeauleau Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- D & B AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EARL RYDERS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- D AND B AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Galesville Ettrick Trempealeau Middle SchUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Donald W BrenengenUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Trempealeau'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 Trempealeau.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Trempealeau
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Trempealeau
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Trempealeau, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Trempealeau. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Trempealeau
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 Trempealeau average
Your land is one point inside Trempealeau
Everything above resolves to Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau Average
Trempealeau Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Trempealeau
- ●One soil character for all of Trempealeau
- ●Frost dates read at Trempealeau's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Trempealeau's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Trempealeau
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Trempealeau, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Trempealeau averages can't show:
We read public map data around Trempealeau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Trempealeau average
How we know this about Trempealeau
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 Trempealeau’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 Trempealeau
When does frost risk typically end in Trempealeau?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Trempealeau typically lands around Apr 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in Trempealeau?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Trempealeau typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Trempealeau?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Trempealeau sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Trempealeau?
The federal record around Trempealeau is a meaningful one — 285 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Trempealeau?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Trempealeau's scale — its 5a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Trempealeau'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 Trempealeau’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Trempealeau's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,268 acres it covers and 285 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Trempealeau's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Trempealeau's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 285 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Trempealeau, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Trempealeau's boundary and the 1,268 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Trempealeau's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Trempealeau's 1,268 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trempealeau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trempealeau 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 Trempealeau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Trempealeau's 1,268 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Trempealeau you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,268 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Trempealeau-wide figureread your own land →
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