Morenci, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morenci, 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 Morenci 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 Morenci — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morenci — the short answer
Morenci, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Morenci's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morenci's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morenci
Each reading below is measured for Morenci itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorenci runs about 193 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
MeasuredMorenci 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 Morenci is in
Morenci sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morenci's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lenawee County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Morenci
Every plant below cleared Morenci's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morenci?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Morenci
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Morenci, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Morenci
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morenci. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rendel Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- A-1 Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Morenci Deli LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ROTH FABRICATINGBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HENKEL SURFACE TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HENKEL SURFACE TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- Rowley Lumber & Hardware Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Wherehouse #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Parker & AmchemUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LENCO DECORATORS INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- City Of Morenci DpwUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MORENCI ENG RUBBER PRODSToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morenci'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 Morenci.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Morenci
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morenci
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morenci
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morenci, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Morenci. 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 Morenci
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 Morenci average
Your land is one point inside Morenci
Everything above resolves to Morenci as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Morenci Average
Morenci Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Morenci
- ●One soil character for all of Morenci
- ●Frost dates read at Morenci's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morenci's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morenci
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morenci, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morenci averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morenci — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morenci average
How we know this about Morenci
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 Morenci’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 Morenci
When does frost risk typically end in Morenci?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morenci typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Morenci?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morenci typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morenci?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morenci sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 13, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morenci?
The federal record around Morenci shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Morenci?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morenci's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morenci'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 Morenci’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Morenci's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,357 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morenci's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morenci's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 27 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morenci, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morenci's boundary and the 1,357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Morenci sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Morencilydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morenci's 1,357 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lenawee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lenawee 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 Lenawee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morenci's 1,357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morenci you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,357 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 Morenci-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMorenci sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.