Valders, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Valders, 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 Valders 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 Valders — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valders — the short answer
Valders, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 921 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 921 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 Valders's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valders's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valders
Each reading below is measured for Valders itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValders runs about 181 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
MeasuredValders 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 Valders is in
Valders sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valders's own centroid rather than borrowed from Manitowoc County.
What Grows in Valders
Every plant below cleared Valders's own zone 5b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valders?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Valders
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valders. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVE MAHLIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- VILLAGE OF VALDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- OLD IMPLEMENT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VALDERS SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Herbert F SchiselUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Valders Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GENE ROSENTHALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LARSON CHEVROLET GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LAIDLAW TRANSIT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BRENNANS MOBIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Webers AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LAKESHORE PAINTWORKS LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valders'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 Valders.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valders
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valders
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valders, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valders — CAFO (17 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (23 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Valders
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 Valders average
Your land is one point inside Valders
Everything above resolves to Valders as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 921 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 Valders Average
Valders Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Valders
- ●One soil character for all of Valders
- ●Frost dates read at Valders's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valders's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valders
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valders, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valders averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valders — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valders average
How we know this about Valders
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 Valders’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 Valders
When does frost risk typically end in Valders?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valders typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Valders?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valders typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valders?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valders sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 5, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valders?
The federal record around Valders is a meaningful one — 367 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (195), 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 Valders?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valders's scale — its 5b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valders'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 Valders’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valders's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 921 acres it covers and 367 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valders's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valders's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 19 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 367 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valders, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valders's boundary and the 921 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valders'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 Valders's 921 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Manitowoc County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Manitowoc 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 Manitowoc County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valders's 921 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valders you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 921 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 Valders-wide figureread your own land →