Grand Traverse County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grand Traverse County lies within the Leelanau & Old Mission Peninsulas — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Grand Traverse County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grand Traverse County — the short answer
Grand Traverse County, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 297K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 297K 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 Grand Traverse County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grand Traverse County's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Grand Traverse County
Across a year, Grand Traverse County accumulates about 2,037 growing degree days above 50°F, about 63 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 39 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 Grand Traverse County
Across Grand Traverse County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Rubicon, Kalkaska, and Emmet are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–6.1, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Grand Traverse County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Grand Traverse County as excessively drained — but another 63% drains differently: 27% well drained, 19% somewhat excessively drained.
Rubicon is the most extensive named soil at 30% of mapped acres, then Kalkaska (20%) and Emmet (9%).
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 Grand Traverse County
Each reading below is measured for Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County are 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 Grand Traverse County runs about pH 4.8–6.1, 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
MeasuredGrand Traverse County 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
MeasuredGrand Traverse County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Grand Traverse County is in
Grand Traverse County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (61%) and North Central Hardwood Forests (39%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Grand Traverse County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Grand Traverse County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 176-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 Grand Traverse County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Grand Traverse County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Grand Traverse County
USGS estimates 6,741 lb of Glyphosate on Grand Traverse County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (1,476 lb) and Carbaryl (1,379 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 Grand Traverse County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Grand Traverse County — 1,120 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 13 Superfund sites. 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 Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County
Closest first, across Grand Traverse County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRAND TRAVERSE ACADEMYBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Cherry Knoll Shell Mini-martUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Roys HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Roy's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Traverse City `Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 27N 10W 30CBBC 01 GRAND TRAVERSE CO (B6)Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Cletus J. BelangerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- THE OILGEAR COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- TELLUREX CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- OPTI TEMP INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- COHERENT INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MAXAL INTERNATIONAL INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County.
Sources Checked
across Grand Traverse County
Severity Distribution
across Grand Traverse County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grand Traverse County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 434 sites across Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County average
Your land is one point inside Grand Traverse County
Everything above resolves to Grand Traverse County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 297K 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 Grand Traverse County Average
Grand Traverse County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Grand Traverse County
- ●One soil character for all of Grand Traverse County
- ●Frost dates read at Grand Traverse County's scale: May 4 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grand Traverse County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Grand Traverse County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grand Traverse County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grand Traverse County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grand Traverse County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grand Traverse County average
How we know this about Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Grand Traverse County
When does frost risk typically end in Grand Traverse County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Traverse County typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Grand Traverse County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grand Traverse County sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 13, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grand Traverse County?
The federal record around Grand Traverse County is a meaningful one — 1,120 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (434), the nearest Brownfields 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.
Everything above is measured at Grand Traverse County's scale — its 6a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Grand Traverse County's own scale — its own ~176-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,120 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grand Traverse County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grand Traverse County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Grand Traverse CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,120 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Grand Traverse County's boundary and the 297,175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Grand Traverse County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Grand Traverse County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County — the ~176 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 Grand Traverse County's 297,175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,120 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 Grand Traverse Countyread your own land →