Fort Kent, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Kent, 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 Fort Kent 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 Fort Kent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Kent — the short answer
Fort Kent, Maine: USDA zone 4a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- 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 4a is Fort Kent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Kent's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Kent
Each reading below is measured for Fort Kent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Kent runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFort Kent sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Fort Kent is in
Fort Kent sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Kent's own centroid rather than borrowed from Aroostook County.
What Grows in Fort Kent
Every plant below cleared Fort Kent's own zone 4a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Kent?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Fort Kent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Kent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARON, CARROLLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT FORT KENTBrownfields · 750 ft
- VALLEY FUNERAL SVC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TWINS SVC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DAIGLE & HOUGHTON INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- UP NORTH CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DEAD RIVER BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ST JOHN OPERATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GAS N GO FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VALLEY AUTO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RLC NORTHERN ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FORT KENT IRVINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Kent'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 Fort Kent.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Kent
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Kent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Kent, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 75 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Kent. 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 Fort Kent
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 Fort Kent average
Your land is one point inside Fort Kent
Everything above resolves to Fort Kent 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 Fort Kent Average
Fort Kent Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Fort Kent
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Kent
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Kent's scale: May 10 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Kent's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Kent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Kent, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Kent averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Kent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Kent average
How we know this about Fort Kent
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 Fort Kent’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 Fort Kent
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Kent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Kent 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 Fort Kent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Kent typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Kent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Kent sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 21, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Kent?
The federal record around Fort Kent shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Fort Kent?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort Kent rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fort Kent's scale — its 4a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Kent'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 Fort Kent’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Kent's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,427 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Kent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Kent's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 5 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Kent, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Kent's boundary and the 3,427 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Kent's own centroid, the Acadian Plains and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Kent's 3,427 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aroostook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aroostook County
- The growing challenges every Maine grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maine
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Aroostook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Kent's 3,427 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Kent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,427 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Kent-wide figureread your own land →
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