McBain, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in McBain, 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 McBain 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 McBain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McBain — the short answer
McBain, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 806 acres of city.
- 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 806 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 McBain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McBain's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McBain
Each reading below is measured for McBain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcBain runs about 153 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
MeasuredMcBain 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 McBain is in
McBain sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at McBain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Missaukee County.
What Grows in McBain
Every plant below cleared McBain's own zone 5a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McBain?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 8 — 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 McBain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McBain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- McBain BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- McBain Jiffy martUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Mcbain Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Mcbain School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Parts Plus Mcbain(former B&j SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Vanderwal GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Ellens Equipment IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Dutch HutchUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HYDROLAKE INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- HYDROLAKE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- MCBAIN BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MCBAIN TAX INVESTMENT AUTHORITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McBain'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 McBain.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of McBain
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McBain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McBain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McBain, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 97 sites within ~10 miles of McBain. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in McBain
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 McBain average
Your land is one point inside McBain
Everything above resolves to McBain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 806 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 McBain Average
McBain Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across McBain
- ●One soil character for all of McBain
- ●Frost dates read at McBain's scale: May 8 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McBain's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McBain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McBain, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McBain averages can't show:
We read public map data around McBain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McBain average
How we know this about McBain
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 McBain’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 McBain
When does frost risk typically end in McBain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McBain 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 McBain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McBain typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McBain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McBain sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 24, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McBain?
The federal record around McBain is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), 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 McBain?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McBain's scale — its 5a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McBain'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 McBain’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McBain's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 806 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McBain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McBain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 8 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McBain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McBain's boundary and the 806 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McBain'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 McBain's 806 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Missaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Missaukee 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 Missaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McBain's 806 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McBain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 806 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 McBain-wide figureread your own land →
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