Ida, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ida, 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 Ida 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 Ida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ida — the short answer
Ida, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6a is Ida's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ida's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ida
Each reading below is measured for Ida itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIda runs about 203 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredIda sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Ida is in
Ida sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ida's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Ida
Every plant below cleared Ida's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ida?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Ida
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Ida, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ida
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ida. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ida Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ida Petroleum LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Marathon Unit 1184Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Zorns Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 07S 07E 03AAAA01 MONROENitrate · 0.7 mi
- 07S 07E 03 AAD01 MONROE CO WELL G-19Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Ida Auction HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- IDA FARMERS CO-OPERATIVE COMPANYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- J L Barrow Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 07S07E01CDB 01 METZ, JNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 1390060bUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 07S 07E 13 DCC01 MONROE CO WELL D-13Nitrate · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ida'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 Ida.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ida
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ida
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ida
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 Ida average
Your land is one point inside Ida
Everything above resolves to Ida 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 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 Ida Average
Ida Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ida
- ●One soil character for all of Ida
- ●Frost dates read at Ida's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ida's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ida
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ida, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ida averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ida average
How we know this about Ida
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 Ida’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 Ida
When does frost risk typically end in Ida?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ida typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Ida?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ida typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ida?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ida sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ida?
The federal record around Ida is a meaningful one — 523 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (227), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ida?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ida's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ida'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 Ida’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ida's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,581 acres it covers and 523 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ida's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ida's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 31 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 523 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ida, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ida's boundary and the 1,581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ida's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Idalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ida's 1,581 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ida's 1,581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ida you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,581 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ida-wide figureread your own land →
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