Edmore, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Edmore, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Edmore lot. 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 Edmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edmore — the short answer
Edmore, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 974 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 974 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Edmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edmore's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edmore
Each reading below is measured for Edmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdmore runs about 175 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
MeasuredEdmore sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Edmore is in
Edmore sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Edmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montcalm County.
What Grows in Edmore
Every plant below cleared Edmore's own zone 5b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edmore?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 — 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 Edmore
Survey cells within 31 miles of Edmore checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 103 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cargill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Village Of EdmoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- D B LABS LLCBrownfields · 500 ft
- Bird Fertilizer ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Gte 2110004Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Mid Michigan Container CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- IVAN WOODROWBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Edmore MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Admiral Petroleum #170Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Blodgett #20Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- OM Petroleum IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edmore'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 Edmore.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Edmore
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edmore, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Edmore. 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 Edmore
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 Edmore average
Your land is one point inside Edmore
Everything above resolves to Edmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 974 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Edmore Average
Edmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Edmore
- ●One soil character for all of Edmore
- ●Frost dates read at Edmore's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edmore's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edmore, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edmore average
How we know this about Edmore
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Edmore’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Edmore
When does frost risk typically end in Edmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edmore 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.
When is the first frost in Edmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edmore typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edmore sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 6, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edmore?
The federal record around Edmore shows 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Edmore?
From about Sep 20 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edmore's scale — its 5b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edmore's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Edmore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Edmore's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 974 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 20 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edmore's boundary and the 974 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edmore's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Edmore checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edmore's 974 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montcalm County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montcalm County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Montcalm County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edmore's 974 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 974 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Edmore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganEdmore sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.