Hancock, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hancock, 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 Hancock 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 Hancock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hancock — the short answer
Hancock, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Hancock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hancock's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hancock
Each reading below is measured for Hancock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHancock runs about 173 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
MeasuredHancock 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 Hancock is in
Hancock sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hancock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Houghton County.
What Grows in Hancock
Every plant below cleared Hancock's own zone 5b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hancock?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (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.
What's on the federal record near Hancock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hancock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEWEENAW NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK ADVISORY COMMISSIONBrownfields · 900 ft
- Cypress Manor Nursing HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Hancock Copper MinesMining · 1800 ft
- Charles HoyerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Richard CarneUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PORTAGE HOSPITALBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Hancock City GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 2400 ft
- C/S 31052 Job 26620b Parcel 208Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Portage HealthUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PORTAGE HEALTH SYSTEMBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BHK CHILD DEVELOPMENT BOARDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hancock'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 Hancock.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hancock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hancock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hancock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hancock — Superfund (19 sites) and Mining (81 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Hancock
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 Hancock average
Your land is one point inside Hancock
Everything above resolves to Hancock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Hancock Average
Hancock Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hancock
- ●One soil character for all of Hancock
- ●Frost dates read at Hancock's scale: May 2 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hancock's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hancock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hancock, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hancock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hancock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hancock average
How we know this about Hancock
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hancock’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Hancock
When does frost risk typically end in Hancock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hancock typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Hancock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hancock typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hancock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hancock sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 8, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hancock?
The federal record around Hancock is a meaningful one — 337 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (117), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hancock?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hancock's scale — its 5b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hancock'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 Hancock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hancock's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,779 acres it covers and 337 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hancock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hancock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 22 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 337 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hancock, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hancock's boundary and the 1,779 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hancock's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hancock's 1,779 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Houghton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Houghton 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 Houghton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hancock's 1,779 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hancock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,779 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Hancock-wide figureread your own land →
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