Otisville, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Otisville, 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 Otisville 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 Otisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Otisville — the short answer
Otisville, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 564 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 564 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 Otisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Otisville's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Otisville
Each reading below is measured for Otisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOtisville runs about 185 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
MeasuredOtisville 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 Otisville is in
Otisville sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Otisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Genesee County.
What Grows in Otisville
Every plant below cleared Otisville's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Otisville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Otisville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Otisville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Otisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Otisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CABINET SAVERS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 350 ft
- Genesee County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Conlee Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Richard HughesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- J & M AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BALD MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Birtles Motor SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PBG2Nitrate · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Village Of OtisvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- COUNTY OF GENESEE ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- George AbuaitaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Otisville'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 Otisville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Otisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Otisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Otisville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Otisville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Otisville
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 Otisville average
Your land is one point inside Otisville
Everything above resolves to Otisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 564 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 Otisville Average
Otisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Otisville
- ●One soil character for all of Otisville
- ●Frost dates read at Otisville's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Otisville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Otisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Otisville, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Otisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Otisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Otisville average
How we know this about Otisville
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 Otisville’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 Otisville
When does frost risk typically end in Otisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Otisville typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Otisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Otisville typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Otisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Otisville sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 10, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Otisville?
The federal record around Otisville is a meaningful one — 352 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (182), the nearest Brownfields 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 Otisville?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Otisville's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Otisville'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 Otisville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Otisville's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 564 acres it covers and 352 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Otisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Otisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 24 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 352 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Otisville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Otisville's boundary and the 564 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Otisville's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Otisville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Otisville's 564 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Genesee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Genesee 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 Genesee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Otisville's 564 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Otisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 564 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Otisville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganOtisville sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides