Alger County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Alger County lies within the Upper Peninsula — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Alger County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Alger 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 Alger County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alger County — the short answer
Alger County, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 586K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 586K 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 5b is Alger County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alger County's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Alger County
Across a year, Alger County accumulates about 1,466 growing degree days above 50°F, about 634 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 5 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 Alger County
Across Alger County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Kalkaska, Rubicon, and Garlic are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Somewhat excessively drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
25%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Alger County
The USDA soil survey maps 23% of Alger County as somewhat excessively drained — but another 73% drains differently: 20% moderately well drained, 19% very poorly drained.
Kalkaska is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Rubicon (6%) and Garlic (5%).
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 Alger County
Each reading below is measured for Alger 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 Alger County are somewhat excessively 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 Alger County runs about pH 4.7–5.0, 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 25% of Alger 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
MeasuredAlger 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 Alger County is in
Alger 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 Alger County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Alger County's own USDA zone 5b 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 Alger County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Alger County
- monarch butterfly11 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Alger County
USGS estimates 1,635 lb of Glyphosate on Alger County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (364 lb) and Bromoxynil (345 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 Alger County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Alger County — 171 documented sites across 6 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 Alger 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 Alger County
Closest first, across Alger County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hilltop Groc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Munising EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 47N18W19CAD 01 NPS T74-1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 47N 18W 19CAD02 ALGER CO (SAND PT. 2)Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 47N18W03CCD 01 NPS T74-3Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE ( B01-02042)Brownfields · 5.6 mi
- RON'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- Standard Oil Of IndianaUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Sand Point HeadquatersUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 47N 18W 10AADB 01 ALGER CO (71-1)Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 47N 18W 30DCBC 01 ALGER CO (RANGE)Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- Christmas Sports EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alger 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 Alger County.
Total Sites
171
across Alger County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Alger County
Severity Distribution
across Alger County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alger County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites across Alger County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Alger 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 Alger County average
Your land is one point inside Alger County
Everything above resolves to Alger County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 586K 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 Alger County Average
Alger County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Alger County
- ●One soil character for all of Alger County
- ●Frost dates read at Alger County's scale: May 1 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alger County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Alger County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alger County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alger County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alger County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alger County average
How we know this about Alger 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 Alger County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Alger County
When does frost risk typically end in Alger County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alger County typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Alger County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alger County sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 23, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alger County?
The federal record around Alger County is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Alger County's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alger 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 Alger County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Alger County's own scale — its own ~189-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 171 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alger County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alger 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 Alger CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 171 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Alger County's boundary and the 585,625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alger County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Alger County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Alger 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 Alger 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 Alger County's 585,625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 171 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 Alger Countyread your own land →