Applegate, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Applegate, 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 Applegate 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 Applegate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Applegate — the short answer
Applegate, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 642 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 642 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 Applegate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Applegate's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Applegate
Each reading below is measured for Applegate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApplegate runs about 199 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
MeasuredApplegate 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 Applegate is in
Applegate sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Applegate's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sanilac County.
What Grows in Applegate
Every plant below cleared Applegate's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Applegate?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Applegate
Survey cells within 31 miles of Applegate checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 61 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Applegate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Applegate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Garth VincentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Applegate Party StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Sohigro Service CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Robert BennettUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Max C ArnoldUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Arthur FrosticUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Sanilac Ct Rd Comm Garage #6Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Lloyd A. WalkerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Village Of CarsonvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CARSONVILLE-PT SANILAC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- Asher Oil & Gas Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Carsonville-port Sanilac SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Applegate'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 Applegate.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Applegate
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Applegate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Applegate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Applegate, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Applegate. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Applegate
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 Applegate average
Your land is one point inside Applegate
Everything above resolves to Applegate as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 642 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 Applegate Average
Applegate Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Applegate
- ●One soil character for all of Applegate
- ●Frost dates read at Applegate's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Applegate's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Applegate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Applegate, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Applegate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Applegate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Applegate average
How we know this about Applegate
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 Applegate’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 Applegate
When does frost risk typically end in Applegate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Applegate typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Applegate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Applegate typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Applegate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Applegate sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 22, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Applegate?
The federal record around Applegate is a meaningful one — 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), 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 Applegate?
From about Oct 6 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 Nov 5 (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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Applegate's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Applegate'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 Applegate’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Applegate's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 642 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Applegate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Applegate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 5 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Applegate, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Applegate's boundary and the 642 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Applegate's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Applegate 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 Applegate's 642 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sanilac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sanilac 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 Sanilac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Applegate's 642 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Applegate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 642 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 Applegate-wide figureread your own land →
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