Cheboygan County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Cheboygan County lies within the Northern Lower Michigan ("Up North") — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cheboygan County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cheboygan County — the short answer
Cheboygan County, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 458K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 458K 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 5a is Cheboygan County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheboygan County's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cheboygan County
Across a year, Cheboygan County accumulates about 1,802 growing degree days above 50°F, about 298 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 24 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 Cheboygan County
Across Cheboygan County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Rubicon, Cheboygan, and Blue Lake are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–6.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
25%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cheboygan County
The USDA soil survey maps 20% of Cheboygan County as very poorly drained — but another 70% drains differently: 20% well drained, 16% excessively drained.
Rubicon is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Cheboygan (12%) and Blue Lake (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 Cheboygan County
Each reading below is measured for Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cheboygan County runs about pH 4.8–6.3, 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
Season length
MeasuredCheboygan County runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCheboygan County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Cheboygan County is in
Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cheboygan County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 149-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 Cheboygan 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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around Cheboygan County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly15 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cheboygan County
USGS estimates 1,719 lb of Glyphosate on Cheboygan County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (350 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (165 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 Cheboygan County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cheboygan County — 249 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 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 Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County
Closest first, across Cheboygan County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pigeon Bay General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Aloha DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- State Of Mi-aloha State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Parkside General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Nor-mich Bldg. Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Mullett Lake Marina IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Uscg Cutter MackinawUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Frank E SkoczylasUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Topinabee MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Jims Handyman & Repair ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Harveys Shell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Landings MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County.
Total Sites
249
across Cheboygan County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Cheboygan County
Severity Distribution
across Cheboygan County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheboygan County, two things run higher than the national average across Cheboygan County — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (161 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County average
Your land is one point inside Cheboygan County
Everything above resolves to Cheboygan County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 458K 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 Cheboygan County Average
Cheboygan County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cheboygan County
- ●One soil character for all of Cheboygan County
- ●Frost dates read at Cheboygan County's scale: May 14 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheboygan County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cheboygan County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheboygan County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheboygan County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheboygan County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheboygan County average
How we know this about Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cheboygan County
When does frost risk typically end in Cheboygan County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheboygan County typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
How long is the growing season in Cheboygan County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheboygan County sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 26, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheboygan County?
The federal record around Cheboygan County is a meaningful one — 249 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (161), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 gardeners stretch the season in Cheboygan County?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cheboygan County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cheboygan County's scale — its 5a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cheboygan County's own scale — its own ~149-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 249 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheboygan County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cheboygan County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cheboygan CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 249 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cheboygan County's boundary and the 457,781 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cheboygan County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cheboygan County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cheboygan 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 Cheboygan County — the ~149 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 Cheboygan County's 457,781 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 249 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 Cheboygan Countyread your own land →