Traverse City, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Traverse City, 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 Traverse City 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 Traverse City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Traverse City — the short answer
Traverse City, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 6b is Traverse City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Traverse City's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Traverse City
Each reading below is measured for Traverse City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTraverse City runs about 191 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
MeasuredTraverse City sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Traverse City is in
Traverse City sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Traverse City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grand Traverse County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Traverse City
Every plant below cleared Traverse City's own zone 6b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Traverse City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Traverse City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Traverse City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMSTOCK CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SURFIN INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Schafer BakeriesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Comstock Construction CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- City of Traverse CityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CITY OF TRAVERSE CITYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Traverse Bay Packaging CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Paulos Land CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- American Military LeagueUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- A - 1 AUTO PARTS & SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- FOUNDATION MENTAL HEALTHBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Traverse HeightsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Traverse City'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 Traverse City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Traverse City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Traverse City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Traverse City, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Traverse City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Traverse City
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 Traverse City average
Your land is one point inside Traverse City
Everything above resolves to Traverse City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Traverse City Average
Traverse City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Traverse City
- ●One soil character for all of Traverse City
- ●Frost dates read at Traverse City's scale: Apr 26 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Traverse City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Traverse City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Traverse City, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Traverse City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Traverse City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Traverse City average
How we know this about Traverse City
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 Traverse City’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 Traverse City
When does frost risk typically end in Traverse City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Traverse City typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Traverse City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Traverse City typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Traverse City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Traverse City sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 20, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Traverse City?
The federal record around Traverse City is a meaningful one — 851 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (334), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Traverse City?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Traverse City's scale — its 6b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Traverse City'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 Traverse City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Traverse City's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,297 acres it covers and 851 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Traverse City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Traverse City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Nov 3 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 851 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Traverse City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Traverse City's boundary and the 5,297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Traverse City sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Traverse City's 5,297 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grand Traverse County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Traverse City's 5,297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Traverse City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,297 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Traverse City-wide figureread your own land →