Albion, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Albion, 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 Albion 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 Albion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Albion — the short answer
Albion, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6a is Albion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Albion's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Albion
Each reading below is measured for Albion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlbion runs about 187 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
MeasuredAlbion sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Albion is in
Albion sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Albion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Albion
Every plant below cleared Albion's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Albion?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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.
Documented around Albion
Survey cells within 31 miles of Albion checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Albion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Albion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crystal Flash-Albion (Lessee)Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- City Of Albion Water DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Union Steel Products, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Albion Division OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HARVARD INDUSTRIESSuperfund · 950 ft
- Hayes Albion CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HAYES-ALBION CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- Margery BursteinUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ONE HOUR MARTINIZING ALBIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ZICK'S BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Donut FactoryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Knight Enterprises IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Albion'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 Albion.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Albion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Albion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Albion, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Albion. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Albion
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 Albion average
Your land is one point inside Albion
Everything above resolves to Albion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Albion Average
Albion Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Albion
- ●One soil character for all of Albion
- ●Frost dates read at Albion's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Albion's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Albion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Albion, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Albion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Albion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Albion average
How we know this about Albion
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 Albion’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 Albion
When does frost risk typically end in Albion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Albion typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Albion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Albion 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Albion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Albion sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 12, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Albion?
The federal record around Albion is a meaningful one — 251 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (149), 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 Albion?
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 Albion's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Albion'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 Albion’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Albion's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,822 acres it covers and 251 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Albion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Albion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 26 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 251 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Albion, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Albion's boundary and the 2,822 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Albion's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Albion checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Albion's 2,822 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Albion's 2,822 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Albion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,822 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 Albion-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganAlbion sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides