Waldo County, in Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Waldo County lies within the Midcoast Maine — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Waldo County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Waldo County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Waldo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waldo County — the short answer
Waldo County, Maine: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 467K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 467K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5b is Waldo County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waldo County's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Waldo County
Across a year, Waldo County accumulates about 1,922 growing degree days above 50°F, about 164 more than the middle Maine county — ahead of 10 of Maine’s 16 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Waldo County
Across Waldo County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Peru, Lyman, and Marlow are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.3–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
22%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Waldo County
The USDA soil survey maps 27% of Waldo County as moderately well drained — but another 68% drains differently: 21% well drained, 18% somewhat excessively drained.
Peru is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Lyman (11%) and Marlow (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Waldo County
Each reading below is measured for Waldo County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Waldo County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Waldo County runs about pH 4.3–5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 22% of Waldo County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredWaldo County 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
The kind of country Waldo County is in
Waldo County sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Waldo County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Waldo County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 191-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile.
Is it too late to plant in Waldo County?
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 Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Waldo County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waldo County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Waldo County
USGS estimates 1,771 lb of Glyphosate on Waldo County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (1,412 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,100 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Waldo County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Waldo County — 246 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Waldo County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Waldo County
Closest first, across Waldo County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEAVERS ROADSIDE VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOWEN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MORRILL COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- COLONIAL COACH & CYCLEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- BELFAST WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 4.0 mi
- ARTHUR JEWELL HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- MAINE RESOURCESSuperfund · 5.0 mi
- LITTLEFIELD, GEORGE WUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- BOYNTON OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MARITIME FARMS 51Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- STATE SAND & GRAVEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- MOLLISONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waldo County'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 Waldo County.
Total Sites
246
across Waldo County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Waldo County
Severity Distribution
across Waldo County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waldo County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 168 sites across Waldo County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Waldo County
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 Waldo County average
Your land is one point inside Waldo County
Everything above resolves to Waldo County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 467K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Waldo County Average
Waldo County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Waldo County
- ●One soil character for all of Waldo County
- ●Frost dates read at Waldo County's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waldo County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Waldo County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waldo County, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waldo County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waldo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waldo County average
How we know this about Waldo County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Waldo County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Waldo County
When does frost risk typically end in Waldo County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waldo County typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Waldo County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waldo County sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 10, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waldo County?
The federal record around Waldo County is a meaningful one — 246 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (168), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Waldo County's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waldo County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Maine's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Waldo County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Waldo County's own scale — its own ~191-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 246 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waldo County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waldo County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Waldo CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 246 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Waldo County's boundary and the 467,345 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Waldo County sitting wholly inside the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Waldo County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Waldo County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Maine grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maine
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Waldo County — the ~191 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waldo County's 467,345 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 246 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Waldo Countyread your own land →