Tustin, 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Tustin, 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 Tustin 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 Tustin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tustin — the short answer
Tustin, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 657 acres of town.
- 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 657 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 Tustin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tustin's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tustin
Each reading below is measured for Tustin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTustin runs about 188 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
MeasuredTustin 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 Tustin is in
Tustin sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tustin's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Waushara County is mostly North Central Hardwood Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tustin
Every plant below cleared Tustin's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tustin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 21 — 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 Tustin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tustin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Winton GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WS-20/13E/02-1007Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- GEORGE FREERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WI-20/14E/30-0140Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- EUGENE SPERBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- JUST METZUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- PINE BREEZE DAIRY LLCCAFO · 3.7 mi
- CAPTAINS COVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- PERMIT SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MAYS LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Anchor Point MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- S A GEISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tustin'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 Tustin.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Tustin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tustin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tustin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tustin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 85 sites within ~10 miles of Tustin. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Tustin
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 Tustin average
Your land is one point inside Tustin
Everything above resolves to Tustin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 657 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 Tustin Average
Tustin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Tustin
- ●One soil character for all of Tustin
- ●Frost dates read at Tustin's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tustin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tustin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tustin, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tustin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tustin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tustin average
How we know this about Tustin
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 Tustin’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 Tustin
When does frost risk typically end in Tustin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tustin 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 Tustin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tustin typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tustin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tustin sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 7, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tustin?
The federal record around Tustin shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Tustin?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tustin's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tustin'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 Tustin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tustin's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 657 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tustin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tustin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 21 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tustin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tustin's boundary and the 657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tustin sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tustin's 657 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waushara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waushara 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 Waushara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tustin's 657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tustin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 657 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Tustin-wide figureread your own land →