Pinconning, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pinconning, 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 Pinconning 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 Pinconning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pinconning — the short answer
Pinconning, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 551 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 551 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 Pinconning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pinconning's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pinconning
Each reading below is measured for Pinconning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPinconning runs about 184 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
MeasuredPinconning 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 Pinconning is in
Pinconning sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pinconning's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bay County.
What Grows in Pinconning
Every plant below cleared Pinconning's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pinconning?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Pinconning
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pinconning checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pinconning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pinconning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- City Of Pinconning DpwUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Countrymark IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- H & H BAKERY AND RESTAURANTBrownfields · 450 ft
- THIRD STREET AUTO REPAIRSuperfund · 750 ft
- Colen LafaveUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SCHAFER INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- HARRIS J B HARDWAREBrownfields · 1000 ft
- KRAFT GENERAL FOODS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- MAGLINE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Transportation DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Forward Pinconning Mini PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CARQUEST AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pinconning'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 Pinconning.
Total Sites
165
within ~10 miles of Pinconning
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pinconning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pinconning
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Pinconning
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 Pinconning average
Your land is one point inside Pinconning
Everything above resolves to Pinconning as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 551 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 Pinconning Average
Pinconning Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pinconning
- ●One soil character for all of Pinconning
- ●Frost dates read at Pinconning's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pinconning's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pinconning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pinconning, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pinconning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pinconning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pinconning average
How we know this about Pinconning
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 Pinconning’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 Pinconning
When does frost risk typically end in Pinconning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pinconning typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Pinconning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pinconning typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pinconning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pinconning sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 7, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pinconning?
The federal record around Pinconning is a meaningful one — 165 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), 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 Pinconning?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pinconning's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pinconning'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 Pinconning’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pinconning's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 551 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pinconning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pinconning's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 21 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pinconning, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pinconning's boundary and the 551 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pinconning's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pinconning 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 Pinconning's 551 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bay 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 Bay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pinconning's 551 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pinconning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 551 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 Pinconning-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganPinconning sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides