Luce County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Luce 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
Luce County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Luce 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 Luce County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Luce County — the short answer
Luce County, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 134 days between hard freezes, across 575K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~134
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 575K 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 Luce County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luce County's 134-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Luce County
Across a year, Luce County accumulates about 1,461 growing degree days above 50°F, about 639 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 4 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 Luce County
Across Luce County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Kalkaska, Rubicon, and Wallace are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–4.9, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
44%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Luce County
The USDA soil survey maps 31% of Luce County as very poorly drained — but another 66% drains differently: 17% well drained, 16% somewhat excessively drained.
Kalkaska is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Rubicon (10%) and Wallace (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 Luce County
Each reading below is measured for Luce 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 Luce 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 Luce County runs about pH 4.5–4.9, 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
MeasuredLuce County runs about 134 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
MeasuredLuce 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 Luce County is in
Luce 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 Luce County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Luce County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 134-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 Luce County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What gets applied to farmland in Luce County
USGS estimates 1,438 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Luce County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (1,181 lb) and Linuron (1,015 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 Luce County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Luce County — 85 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Luce County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Luce County
Closest first, across Luce County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 47N 10W 07AAC 01 LUCE CO (PINE STUMP JCT)Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- North Store FMOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Pine Stump JCT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- MPSCS site # 8203Underground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- Pike Lake ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- Peter K AndersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 10.6 mi
- AUTOWARES INCBrownfields · 10.7 mi
- Burbach Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 10.7 mi
- Former Bayshore Filling StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 10.7 mi
- Pike Distributors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 10.7 mi
- Former Newberry Filling Station # 3Underground Storage Tanks · 10.7 mi
- Former Newberry Filling Station # 2Underground Storage Tanks · 10.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luce 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 Luce County.
Total Sites
85
across Luce County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Luce County
Severity Distribution
across Luce County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luce County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 64 sites across Luce 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 Luce 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 Luce County average
Your land is one point inside Luce County
Everything above resolves to Luce County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 575K 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 Luce County Average
Luce County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Luce County
- ●One soil character for all of Luce County
- ●Frost dates read at Luce County's scale: May 22 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luce County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Luce County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luce County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luce County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luce County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luce County average
How we know this about Luce 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 Luce County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Luce County
When does frost risk typically end in Luce County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luce County typically lands around May 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Luce County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luce County sees about 134 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 19, about 99 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luce County?
The federal record around Luce County shows 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Luce County?
With about 134 frost-free days between hard freezes, Luce 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 162 to 190 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Luce County's scale — its 5a band and its 134-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luce 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 Luce County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Luce County's own scale — its own ~134-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
- Luce County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Luce County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~134-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Luce CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 85 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 4.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Luce County's boundary and the 575,407 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~134-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Luce County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Luce 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 Luce County — the ~134 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 Luce County's 575,407 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 Luce Countyread your own land →