Mancelona, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Mancelona, 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 Mancelona 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 Mancelona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mancelona — the short answer
Mancelona, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 642 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 642 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 Mancelona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mancelona's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mancelona
Each reading below is measured for Mancelona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMancelona 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMancelona 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 Mancelona is in
Mancelona sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Mancelona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Antrim County.
What Grows in Mancelona
Every plant below cleared Mancelona's own zone 5a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mancelona?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Mancelona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mancelona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mancelona Food ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MANCELONA SCHOOLSBrownfields · 650 ft
- Ken's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Steel Tank & Fab Co, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Meeder Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Twin Lakes General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Mancelona CardlockUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Jarvis E MccoyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Mancelona Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Derrer Oil/co Sons Amoco StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Mancelona Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Mancelona School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mancelona'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 Mancelona.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mancelona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mancelona
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 Mancelona
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 Mancelona average
Your land is one point inside Mancelona
Everything above resolves to Mancelona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 642 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 Mancelona Average
Mancelona Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Mancelona
- ●One soil character for all of Mancelona
- ●Frost dates read at Mancelona's scale: May 8 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mancelona's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mancelona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mancelona, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mancelona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mancelona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mancelona average
How we know this about Mancelona
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 Mancelona’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 Mancelona
When does frost risk typically end in Mancelona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mancelona typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Mancelona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mancelona typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mancelona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mancelona sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Oct 1, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mancelona?
The federal record around Mancelona is a meaningful one — 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mancelona?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mancelona's scale — its 5a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mancelona'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 Mancelona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mancelona's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 642 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mancelona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mancelona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 15 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mancelona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mancelona's boundary and the 642 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mancelona'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 Mancelona's 642 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Antrim County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Antrim 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 Antrim County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mancelona's 642 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mancelona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 642 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 Mancelona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMancelona sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides