Montcalm County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Montcalm County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Montcalm 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 Montcalm County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Montcalm County — the short answer
Montcalm County, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 451K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 451K 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 Montcalm County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montcalm County's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Montcalm County
Across a year, Montcalm County accumulates about 2,205 growing degree days above 50°F, about 105 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 48 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 Montcalm County
Across Montcalm County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Tekenink, Mancelona, and Plainfield are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
23%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Montcalm County
The USDA soil survey maps 46% of Montcalm County as well drained — but another 51% drains differently: 15% excessively drained, 14% very poorly drained.
Tekenink is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Mancelona (10%) and Plainfield (10%).
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 Montcalm County
Each reading below is measured for Montcalm 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 Montcalm County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Montcalm County runs about pH 5.8–6.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 23% of Montcalm 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
MeasuredMontcalm County runs about 177 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 Montcalm County is in
Montcalm County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (72%) and Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (28%). 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 Montcalm County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Montcalm County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 177-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 Montcalm 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 Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Montcalm County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Montcalm County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 95 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly47 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Montcalm County
USGS estimates 68,956 lb of Glyphosate on Montcalm County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (40,190 lb) and Metolachlor (27,602 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 Montcalm County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Montcalm County — 388 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Montcalm 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 Montcalm County
Closest first, across Montcalm County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hansens Sport CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Tri-Lakes General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Clifford Lake Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Genesis Investors CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Crawford Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- S & S STRIPPINGBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- MID MICHIGAN DISTRICT HEALTH DEPTBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- Montcalm County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- COUNTY OF MONTCALM ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- Edward DrobishUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- FOX STANTON LLCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montcalm 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 Montcalm County.
Total Sites
388
across Montcalm County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Montcalm County
Severity Distribution
across Montcalm County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montcalm County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 240 sites across Montcalm 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 Montcalm 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 Montcalm County average
Your land is one point inside Montcalm County
Everything above resolves to Montcalm County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 451K 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 Montcalm County Average
Montcalm County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Montcalm County
- ●One soil character for all of Montcalm County
- ●Frost dates read at Montcalm County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montcalm County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Montcalm County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montcalm County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montcalm County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montcalm County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montcalm County average
How we know this about Montcalm 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 Montcalm County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Montcalm County
When does frost risk typically end in Montcalm County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montcalm 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 Montcalm County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montcalm County sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 8, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montcalm County?
The federal record around Montcalm County is a meaningful one — 388 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (240), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Montcalm County's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montcalm 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 Montcalm County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Montcalm County's own scale — its own ~177-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 388 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montcalm County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montcalm County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Montcalm CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 388 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Montcalm County's boundary and the 451,410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Montcalm County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Montcalm County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Montcalm 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 Montcalm County — the ~177 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 Montcalm County's 451,410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 388 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 Montcalm Countyread your own land →