Coloma, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Coloma, 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 Coloma 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 Coloma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Coloma — the short answer
Coloma, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 568 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 568 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 6b is Coloma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coloma's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coloma
Each reading below is measured for Coloma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColoma runs about 196 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
MeasuredColoma sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Coloma is in
Coloma sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coloma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berrien County.
What Grows in Coloma
Every plant below cleared Coloma's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coloma?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Coloma
Survey cells within 31 miles of Coloma checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Coloma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coloma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Randy's Amoco BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 900 ft
- BRUNER-GETZ DARLENE DDSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Coloma Cold StorageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Russell VendingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Midwest Bottling & DistributionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CITGO PETROLEUMBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Coloma CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Wesco #6Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Pastelli Steelfab IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MAXIMUM MOLD POLISHINGBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Coloma ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coloma'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 Coloma.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coloma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coloma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coloma, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Coloma. 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 Coloma
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 Coloma average
Your land is one point inside Coloma
Everything above resolves to Coloma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 568 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 Coloma Average
Coloma Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Coloma
- ●One soil character for all of Coloma
- ●Frost dates read at Coloma's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coloma's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coloma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coloma, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coloma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coloma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coloma average
How we know this about Coloma
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 Coloma’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 Coloma
When does frost risk typically end in Coloma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coloma typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Coloma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coloma typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coloma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coloma sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 18, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coloma?
The federal record around Coloma is a meaningful one — 514 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (272), 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 Coloma?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coloma's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coloma'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 Coloma’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Coloma's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 568 acres it covers and 514 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coloma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coloma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 1 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 514 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coloma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coloma's boundary and the 568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coloma's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Coloma 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 Coloma's 568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berrien County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berrien 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 Berrien County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coloma's 568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coloma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 568 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 Coloma-wide figureread your own land →