Tustin, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Tustin, 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 Tustin 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 Tustin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tustin — the short answer
Tustin, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 248 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 248 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 5a is Tustin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tustin's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tustin
Each reading below is measured for Tustin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTustin runs about 154 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
MeasuredTustin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Tustin is in
Tustin sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Tustin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osceola County.
What Grows in Tustin
Every plant below cleared Tustin's own zone 5a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tustin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Tustin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tustin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tustin Area Fire DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 650 ft
- SPECTRUM HEALTHBrownfields · 650 ft
- Walts ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Osceola County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Everett ChaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Tustin EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BLARNEY CASTLE OIL COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Mineral Springs BarUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Bernard A JohnsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LEROY TOOL & DIE INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Pine River Area SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tustin'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 Tustin.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Tustin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tustin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tustin
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 Tustin
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 Tustin average
Your land is one point inside Tustin
Everything above resolves to Tustin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 248 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 Tustin Average
Tustin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Tustin
- ●One soil character for all of Tustin
- ●Frost dates read at Tustin's scale: May 7 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tustin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tustin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tustin, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tustin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tustin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tustin average
How we know this about Tustin
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 Tustin’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 Tustin
When does frost risk typically end in Tustin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tustin typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Tustin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tustin typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tustin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tustin sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 24, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tustin?
The federal record around Tustin is a meaningful one — 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), 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 Tustin?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tustin's scale — its 5a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tustin'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 Tustin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tustin's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 248 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tustin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tustin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 8 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tustin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tustin's boundary and the 248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tustin's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tustin's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osceola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osceola 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 Osceola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tustin's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tustin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 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 Tustin-wide figureread your own land →
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