Potterville, 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 Potterville, 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 Potterville 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 Potterville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Potterville — the short answer
Potterville, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- 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 Potterville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Potterville's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Potterville
Each reading below is measured for Potterville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPotterville runs about 187 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
MeasuredPotterville 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 Potterville is in
Potterville sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Potterville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eaton County.
What Grows in Potterville
Every plant below cleared Potterville's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Potterville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Potterville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Potterville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 64 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Potterville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Potterville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- The Andersons Potterville ElevatUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- City Of PottervilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 03N 04W 23DDB 02Nitrate · 850 ft
- 03N 04W 23DDB 01Nitrate · 850 ft
- POTTERVILLE TRAIN DERAILMENTSuperfund · 1500 ft
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Potterville Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Jims TransmissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Mi Dept. Of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Potterville ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- F & R Party Store IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Potterville Benton Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Potterville'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 Potterville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Potterville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Potterville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Potterville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Potterville. 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 Potterville
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 Potterville average
Your land is one point inside Potterville
Everything above resolves to Potterville 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 Potterville Average
Potterville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Potterville
- ●One soil character for all of Potterville
- ●Frost dates read at Potterville's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Potterville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Potterville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Potterville, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Potterville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Potterville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Potterville average
How we know this about Potterville
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 Potterville’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 Potterville
When does frost risk typically end in Potterville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Potterville 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 Potterville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Potterville 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Potterville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Potterville sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 10, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Potterville?
The federal record around Potterville is a meaningful one — 564 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (279), 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 Potterville?
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 Potterville's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Potterville'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 Potterville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Potterville's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,117 acres it covers and 564 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Potterville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Potterville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 24 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 564 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Potterville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Potterville's boundary and the 1,117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Potterville's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Potterville 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 Potterville's 1,117 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eaton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eaton 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 Eaton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Potterville's 1,117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Potterville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,117 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 Potterville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganPotterville sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides