New Troy, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 New Troy, 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 New Troy 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 New Troy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Troy — the short answer
New Troy, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 848 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 848 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 New Troy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Troy's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Troy
Each reading below is measured for New Troy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Troy runs about 208 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
MeasuredNew Troy 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 New Troy is in
New Troy sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Troy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berrien County.
What Grows in New Troy
Every plant below cleared New Troy's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Troy?
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 Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around New Troy
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from New Troy, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Troy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Troy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STANLEY KNIGHT CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- STANLEY KNIGHT CORP.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Putnam CornersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- New Troy Elementary CampusUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Zielke PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Weesaw Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DENT CRAFTERS OF BERRIEN COUNTY LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ANR PIPELINE COMPANY - BRIDGMAN COMPRESSOR STATION (N5575)Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- Bridgeman Compressor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ANR PIPELINESuperfund · 1.3 mi
- Rubys Truck Wash IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Troy'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 New Troy.
Total Sites
247
within ~10 miles of New Troy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Troy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Troy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Troy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Troy — Superfund (6 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in New Troy
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 New Troy average
Your land is one point inside New Troy
Everything above resolves to New Troy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 848 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 New Troy Average
New Troy Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Troy
- ●One soil character for all of New Troy
- ●Frost dates read at New Troy's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Troy's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Troy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Troy, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Troy averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Troy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Troy average
How we know this about New Troy
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 New Troy’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 New Troy
When does frost risk typically end in New Troy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Troy typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in New Troy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Troy typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Troy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Troy sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 27, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Troy?
The federal record around New Troy is a meaningful one — 247 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (147), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 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 New Troy?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Troy's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Troy'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 New Troy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Troy's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 848 acres it covers and 247 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Troy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Troy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 10 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 247 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Troy, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Troy's boundary and the 848 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Troy's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Troylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Troy's 848 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berrien County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berrien 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 Berrien County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Troy's 848 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Troy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 848 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 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 New Troy-wide figureread your own land →