Alcona County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Alcona County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Alcona County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Alcona County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alcona County — the short answer
Alcona County, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 432K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 432K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Alcona County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alcona County's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Alcona County
Across a year, Alcona County accumulates about 1,870 growing degree days above 50°F, about 230 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 31 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Alcona County
Across Alcona County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Klacking, McGinn, and Grayling are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Alcona County
The USDA soil survey maps 27% of Alcona County as well drained — but another 70% drains differently: 15% somewhat poorly drained, 15% very poorly drained.
Klacking is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then McGinn (8%) and Grayling (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Alcona County
Each reading below is measured for Alcona County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Alcona County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Alcona County runs about pH 5.3–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 20% of Alcona County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAlcona County runs about 189 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
The kind of country Alcona County is in
Alcona County sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Alcona County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Alcona County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 189-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile.
Is it too late to plant in Alcona County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Alcona County
- monarch butterfly10 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Alcona County
USGS estimates 3,493 lb of Glyphosate on Alcona County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (985 lb) and Metolachlor-s (793 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Alcona County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Alcona County — 85 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Alcona County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Alcona County
Closest first, across Alcona County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pamela D OncinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Alcona County JailUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Harrisville Ranger Dist.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Keerls Korner IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MANUS TOOL INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Harrisville Serv CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Harrisville Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Harrisville Harbor ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- NATIONAL AUTOMATED SYSTEM (NAS)Superfund · 2100 ft
- PARTS MFG COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Alcona Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alcona County'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 Alcona County.
Total Sites
85
across Alcona County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Alcona County
Severity Distribution
across Alcona County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alcona County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 62 sites across Alcona County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Alcona County
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 Alcona County average
Your land is one point inside Alcona County
Everything above resolves to Alcona County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 432K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Alcona County Average
Alcona County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Alcona County
- ●One soil character for all of Alcona County
- ●Frost dates read at Alcona County's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alcona County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Alcona County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alcona County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alcona County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alcona County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alcona County average
How we know this about Alcona County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Alcona County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Alcona County
When does frost risk typically end in Alcona County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alcona County typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Alcona County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alcona County sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 17, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alcona County?
The federal record around Alcona County is a meaningful one — 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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.
Everything above is measured at Alcona County's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alcona County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Michigan's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Alcona County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Alcona County's own scale — its own ~189-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 85 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alcona County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alcona County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Alcona CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 85 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Alcona County's boundary and the 431,779 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alcona County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Alcona County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Alcona County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Alcona County — the ~189 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alcona County's 431,779 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 85 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Alcona Countyread your own land →