Chums Corner, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chums Corner, 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 Chums Corner 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 Chums Corner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chums Corner — the short answer
Chums Corner, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- 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
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Chums Corner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chums Corner's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chums Corner
Each reading below is measured for Chums Corner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChums Corner runs about 176 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
MeasuredChums Corner 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 Chums Corner is in
Chums Corner sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chums Corner's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grand Traverse County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chums Corner
Every plant below cleared Chums Corner's own zone 5b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chums Corner?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (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. 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 Chums Corner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chums Corner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #645Brownfields · 550 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #12658Brownfields · 600 ft
- BOTTLING GROUP LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Chum's Corner Shell Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Family Fare Quick Stop #861Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SPARTAN STORES FUEL LLCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Chum's Corner EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FOXS SALES AND SERVICEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- WALGREEN COBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MERIT ENERGY COBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MSP PROPERTY MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- COMPLETE STARTER AND ALTERNATOR SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chums Corner'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 Chums Corner.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chums Corner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chums Corner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chums Corner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chums Corner — Superfund (13 sites) and Nitrate (226 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Chums Corner
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 Chums Corner average
Your land is one point inside Chums Corner
Everything above resolves to Chums Corner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Chums Corner Average
Chums Corner Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Chums Corner
- ●One soil character for all of Chums Corner
- ●Frost dates read at Chums Corner's scale: May 3 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chums Corner's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chums Corner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chums Corner, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chums Corner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chums Corner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chums Corner average
How we know this about Chums Corner
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 Chums Corner’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 Chums Corner
When does frost risk typically end in Chums Corner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chums Corner typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Chums Corner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chums Corner 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 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chums Corner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chums Corner sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 12, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chums Corner?
The federal record around Chums Corner is a meaningful one — 865 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (335), the nearest Brownfields 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 Chums Corner?
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 Chums Corner's scale — its 5b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chums Corner'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 Chums Corner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chums Corner's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,700 acres it covers and 865 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chums Corner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chums Corner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 26 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 865 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chums Corner, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chums Corner's boundary and the 1,700 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chums Corner sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chums Corner's 1,700 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grand Traverse County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chums Corner's 1,700 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chums Corner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,700 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Chums Corner-wide figureread your own land →