Newaygo County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Newaygo County lies within the Fruit Ridge / West Michigan — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Newaygo County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Newaygo 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 Newaygo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newaygo County — the short answer
Newaygo County, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 537K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 537K 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 Newaygo County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newaygo County's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Newaygo County
Across a year, Newaygo County accumulates about 2,100 growing degree days above 50°F, right at the Michigan middle — ahead of 41 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 Newaygo County
Across Newaygo County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Plainfield, Coloma, and Grattan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Newaygo County
The USDA soil survey maps 27% of Newaygo County as excessively drained — but another 70% drains differently: 19% well drained, 12% somewhat excessively drained.
Plainfield is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Coloma (14%) and Grattan (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 Newaygo County
Each reading below is measured for Newaygo 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 Newaygo 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 Newaygo County runs about pH 5.3–6.2, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 18% of Newaygo 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
MeasuredNewaygo County runs about 160 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 Newaygo County is in
Newaygo County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (78%) and Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (23%). 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 Newaygo County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Newaygo County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 160-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 Newaygo 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 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 11 — 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 Newaygo County
- monarch butterfly5 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Newaygo County
USGS estimates 34,176 lb of Glyphosate on Newaygo County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (29,306 lb) and Metolachlor-s (28,347 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 Newaygo County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Newaygo County — 275 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Newaygo 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 Newaygo County
Closest first, across Newaygo County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Newaygo County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- White Cloud/sherman UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Wesco (Whitecloud Unattended)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Molly BsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Wesco #56Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- White Cloud AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KURTS BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Beckers GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Old Newaygo County GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Usda-forest Serv,white Cloud DisUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Community Room Fire BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newaygo 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 Newaygo County.
Total Sites
275
across Newaygo County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Newaygo County
Severity Distribution
across Newaygo County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newaygo County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 169 sites across Newaygo County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Newaygo 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 Newaygo County average
Your land is one point inside Newaygo County
Everything above resolves to Newaygo County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 537K 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 Newaygo County Average
Newaygo County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Newaygo County
- ●One soil character for all of Newaygo County
- ●Frost dates read at Newaygo County's scale: May 4 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newaygo County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Newaygo County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newaygo County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newaygo County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newaygo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newaygo County average
How we know this about Newaygo 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 Newaygo County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Newaygo County
When does frost risk typically end in Newaygo County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newaygo 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 Newaygo County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newaygo County sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 27, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newaygo County?
The federal record around Newaygo County is a meaningful one — 275 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Newaygo County's scale — its 5b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newaygo 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 Newaygo County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Newaygo County's own scale — its own ~160-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 275 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newaygo County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newaygo County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Newaygo CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 275 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Newaygo County's boundary and the 536,887 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Newaygo County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Newaygo County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Newaygo 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 Newaygo County — the ~160 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 Newaygo County's 536,887 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 275 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 Newaygo Countyread your own land →