Manistee, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Manistee, 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 Manistee 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 Manistee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manistee — the short answer
Manistee, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- 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 6b is Manistee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manistee's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manistee
Each reading below is measured for Manistee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManistee runs about 187 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
MeasuredManistee sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Manistee is in
Manistee sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Manistee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Manistee County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Manistee
Every plant below cleared Manistee's own zone 6b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manistee?
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 Nov 1 — 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 Manistee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manistee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Amor Sign Studios IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- AMOR SIGN STUDIOS INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- Manistee Municipal MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 700 ft
- Manistee CO (M27342)Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Right Of WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Manistee County Court HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Garnet & Simone S GumienyUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Morton Thiolkol, Inc/morton SaltUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CITY OF MANISTEE - STR 6470Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Manistee Ct Transportation IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MANISTEE AREA SCHOOL LEABrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manistee'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 Manistee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manistee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manistee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manistee, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Manistee. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Manistee
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 Manistee average
Your land is one point inside Manistee
Everything above resolves to Manistee 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 Manistee Average
Manistee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Manistee
- ●One soil character for all of Manistee
- ●Frost dates read at Manistee's scale: Apr 28 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manistee's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manistee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manistee, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manistee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manistee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manistee average
How we know this about Manistee
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 Manistee’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 Manistee
When does frost risk typically end in Manistee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manistee 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 Manistee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manistee typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manistee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manistee sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 18, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manistee?
The federal record around Manistee is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), 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 Manistee?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manistee's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manistee'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 Manistee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Manistee's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,099 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manistee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manistee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Nov 1 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manistee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manistee's boundary and the 2,099 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Manistee sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manistee's 2,099 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Manistee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Manistee 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 Manistee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manistee's 2,099 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manistee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,099 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 Manistee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganManistee sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides