Hersey, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hersey, 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 Hersey 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 Hersey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hersey — the short answer
Hersey, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 704 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 704 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 5a is Hersey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hersey's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hersey
Each reading below is measured for Hersey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHersey runs about 157 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
MeasuredHersey sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Hersey is in
Hersey sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hersey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osceola County.
What Grows in Hersey
Every plant below cleared Hersey's own zone 5a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hersey?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Hersey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hersey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Larry TrembleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- John CalabreseUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Pullen's Fertilizer & LimeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Hersey Party StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WOLVERINE POWER SUPPLY - HERSEYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Jerry J Mitchell & Wayne JohnsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- EAGLE VILLAGE, INC.PFAS · 1.7 mi
- Wolverine Power Supply Coop, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Eagle Village, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Cat Creek StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE B02-67021Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- CSX TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hersey'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 Hersey.
Total Sites
181
within ~10 miles of Hersey
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hersey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hersey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hersey, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Hersey. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hersey
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 Hersey average
Your land is one point inside Hersey
Everything above resolves to Hersey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 704 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 Hersey Average
Hersey Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hersey
- ●One soil character for all of Hersey
- ●Frost dates read at Hersey's scale: May 6 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hersey's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hersey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hersey, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hersey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hersey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hersey average
How we know this about Hersey
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 Hersey’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 Hersey
When does frost risk typically end in Hersey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hersey typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Hersey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hersey typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hersey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hersey sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 26, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hersey?
The federal record around Hersey is a meaningful one — 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hersey?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hersey's scale — its 5a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hersey'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 Hersey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hersey's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 704 acres it covers and 181 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hersey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hersey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 10 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 181 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hersey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hersey's boundary and the 704 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hersey'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 Hersey's 704 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osceola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osceola 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 Osceola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hersey's 704 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hersey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 704 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hersey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Growing region
Nearby growing guides