Pierson, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pierson, 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 Pierson 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 Pierson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pierson — the short answer
Pierson, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 159 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 159 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 5b is Pierson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pierson's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pierson
Each reading below is measured for Pierson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPierson runs about 168 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
MeasuredPierson sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Pierson is in
Pierson sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Pierson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montcalm County.
What Grows in Pierson
Every plant below cleared Pierson's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pierson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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.
Documented around Pierson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pierson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 93 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pierson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pierson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Village Of PiersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Pierson Trading Post IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CENTRAL SANITARY LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Pierson MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTIONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- BIG BENS TIRES & AUTO REPAIRSBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Sand Lake Wesco #52Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Village Of Sand LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Thermal-tecUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE(S04-59012)Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- Sand Lake Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pierson'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 Pierson.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Pierson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pierson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pierson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pierson, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Pierson. 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 Pierson
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 Pierson average
Your land is one point inside Pierson
Everything above resolves to Pierson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 159 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 Pierson Average
Pierson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pierson
- ●One soil character for all of Pierson
- ●Frost dates read at Pierson's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pierson's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pierson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pierson, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pierson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pierson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pierson average
How we know this about Pierson
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 Pierson’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 Pierson
When does frost risk typically end in Pierson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pierson typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Pierson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pierson typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pierson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pierson sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 1, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pierson?
The federal record around Pierson shows 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pierson?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pierson's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pierson'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 Pierson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pierson's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 159 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pierson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pierson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 15 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pierson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pierson's boundary and the 159 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pierson's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pierson 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 Pierson's 159 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montcalm County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montcalm 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 Montcalm County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pierson's 159 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pierson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 159 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 Pierson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganPierson sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides