White Pine, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 White Pine, 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 White Pine 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 White Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Pine — the short answer
White Pine, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 White Pine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Pine's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Pine
Each reading below is measured for White Pine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Pine runs about 159 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
MeasuredWhite Pine 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 White Pine is in
White Pine sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at White Pine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ontonagon County.
What Grows in White Pine
Every plant below cleared White Pine's own zone 5a and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Pine?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near White Pine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Pine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (Facility) White Pine Copper RefineryMining · 0.7 mi
- White Pine Copper Co. ExtensionMining · 0.8 mi
- WHITE PINE COPPER REFINERY INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SEMCO ENERGY GAS COBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- WHITE PINE COPPER REFINERY INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- Wbhite Pine MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COPPER RANGE COToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- COPPER RANGE COBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- White Pine School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- White Pine Mobil MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Atlas Powder CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WHITE PINE ELECTRIC POWER LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Pine'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 White Pine.
Total Sites
47
within ~10 miles of White Pine
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Pine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Pine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Pine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Pine — Mining (25 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in White Pine
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 White Pine average
Your land is one point inside White Pine
Everything above resolves to White Pine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 White Pine Average
White Pine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across White Pine
- ●One soil character for all of White Pine
- ●Frost dates read at White Pine's scale: May 10 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Pine's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Pine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Pine, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Pine averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Pine average
How we know this about White Pine
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 White Pine’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 White Pine
When does frost risk typically end in White Pine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Pine typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in White Pine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Pine typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Pine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Pine sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Oct 2, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Pine?
The federal record around White Pine is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (25), the nearest Mining record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in White Pine?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Pine's scale — its 5a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Pine'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 White Pine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Pine's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,201 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Pine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Pine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 16 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Pine, the closest Mining record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Pine's boundary and the 3,201 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Pine'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 White Pine's 3,201 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ontonagon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ontonagon 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 Ontonagon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Pine's 3,201 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Pine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,201 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.7 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 White Pine-wide figureread your own land →
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