Cassopolis, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cassopolis, 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 Cassopolis 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 Cassopolis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cassopolis — the short answer
Cassopolis, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- 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 6a is Cassopolis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cassopolis's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cassopolis
Each reading below is measured for Cassopolis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCassopolis runs about 207 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCassopolis 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 Cassopolis is in
Cassopolis sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cassopolis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Cassopolis
Every plant below cleared Cassopolis's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cassopolis?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Cassopolis
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Cassopolis, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cassopolis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cassopolis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASSOPOLIS DENTALBrownfields · 350 ft
- Community MillsUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Cass MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Old Sherriff Dept BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- STICKLERS CLEANERSBrownfields · 900 ft
- WASH BOARD THEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- County Of CassUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BORGESS LEE MEDICAL GROUPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Cass Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WALTERS-DIMMICK PETROLEUM INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Service Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cassopolis'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 Cassopolis.
Total Sites
219
within ~10 miles of Cassopolis
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cassopolis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cassopolis
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Cassopolis
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 Cassopolis average
Your land is one point inside Cassopolis
Everything above resolves to Cassopolis 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 Cassopolis Average
Cassopolis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cassopolis
- ●One soil character for all of Cassopolis
- ●Frost dates read at Cassopolis's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cassopolis's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cassopolis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cassopolis, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cassopolis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cassopolis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cassopolis average
How we know this about Cassopolis
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 Cassopolis’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 Cassopolis
When does frost risk typically end in Cassopolis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cassopolis typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Cassopolis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cassopolis typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cassopolis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cassopolis sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 23, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cassopolis?
The federal record around Cassopolis is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cassopolis?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cassopolis's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cassopolis'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 Cassopolis’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cassopolis's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,287 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cassopolis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cassopolis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 6 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cassopolis, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cassopolis's boundary and the 1,287 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cassopolis's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cassopolislydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cassopolis's 1,287 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cassopolis's 1,287 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cassopolis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,287 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cassopolis-wide figureread your own land →
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