Manistee County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Manistee County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Manistee 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 Manistee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Manistee County — the short answer
Manistee County, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 347K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 347K 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 6b is Manistee County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manistee County's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Manistee County
Across a year, Manistee County accumulates about 1,947 growing degree days above 50°F, about 153 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 35 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 Manistee County
Across Manistee County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Plainfield, Coloma, and Benzonia are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.7, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Manistee County
The USDA soil survey maps 40% of Manistee County as excessively drained — but another 57% drains differently: 17% well drained, 15% somewhat excessively drained.
Plainfield is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Coloma (10%) and Benzonia (8%).
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 Manistee County
Each reading below is measured for Manistee 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 Manistee 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 Manistee County runs about pH 4.5–5.7, 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
MeasuredManistee County runs about 187 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
MeasuredManistee County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Manistee County is in
Manistee County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (52%) and North Central Hardwood Forests (48%). 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 Manistee County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Manistee County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 187-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 Manistee County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Manistee County
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly43 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Manistee County
USGS estimates 2,691 lb of Glyphosate on Manistee County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (907 lb) and Metolachlor-s (739 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 Manistee County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Manistee County — 266 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Manistee 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 Manistee County
Closest first, across Manistee County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Amor Sign Studios IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- AMOR SIGN STUDIOS INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- Manistee Municipal MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 700 ft
- Manistee CO (M27342)Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Right Of WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Manistee County Court HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Garnet & Simone S GumienyUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Morton Thiolkol, Inc/morton SaltUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CITY OF MANISTEE - STR 6470Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Manistee Ct Transportation IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MANISTEE AREA SCHOOL LEABrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manistee 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 Manistee County.
Sources Checked
across Manistee County
Severity Distribution
across Manistee County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manistee County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 170 sites across Manistee County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Manistee 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 Manistee County average
Your land is one point inside Manistee County
Everything above resolves to Manistee County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 347K 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 Manistee County Average
Manistee County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Manistee County
- ●One soil character for all of Manistee County
- ●Frost dates read at Manistee County's scale: Apr 28 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manistee County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Manistee County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manistee County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manistee County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manistee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manistee County average
How we know this about Manistee 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 Manistee County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Manistee County
When does frost risk typically end in Manistee County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manistee County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Manistee County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manistee County sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 18, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manistee County?
The federal record around Manistee County is a meaningful one — 266 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Manistee County's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manistee 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 Manistee County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Manistee County's own scale — its own ~187-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 266 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manistee County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manistee County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Manistee CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 266 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Manistee County's boundary and the 347,088 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Manistee County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Manistee County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Manistee 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 Manistee County — the ~187 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 Manistee County's 347,088 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 266 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 Manistee Countyread your own land →