Island Falls, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Island Falls, 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 Island Falls 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 Island Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Island Falls — the short answer
Island Falls, Maine: USDA zone 4b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 808 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 808 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 4b is Island Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Island Falls's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Island Falls
Each reading below is measured for Island Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIsland Falls runs about 161 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
MeasuredIsland Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Island Falls is in
Island Falls sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Island Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Aroostook County.
What Grows in Island Falls
Every plant below cleared Island Falls's own zone 4b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Island Falls?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Island Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Island Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISLAND FALLS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HAY LAKE UNIT T6 R8Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VA JO WA GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ISLAND FALLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BISHOP, HARLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ISLAND FALLS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NATIONAL STARCH & CHEMICALToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- PORTERS OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BATES FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GR PORTER & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ISLAND FALLS CEDAR PROD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BERRY & WEBB INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Island Falls'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 Island Falls.
Total Sites
43
within ~10 miles of Island Falls
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Island Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Island Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Island Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 39 sites within ~10 miles of Island Falls. 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 Island Falls
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 Island Falls average
Your land is one point inside Island Falls
Everything above resolves to Island Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 808 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 Island Falls Average
Island Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Island Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Island Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Island Falls's scale: May 1 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Island Falls's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Island Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Island Falls, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Island Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Island Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Island Falls average
How we know this about Island Falls
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 Island Falls’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 Island Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Island Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Island Falls typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Island Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Island Falls typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Island Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Island Falls sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 25, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Island Falls?
The federal record around Island Falls is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Island Falls?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Island Falls's scale — its 4b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Island Falls'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 Island Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Island Falls's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 808 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Island Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Island Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 9 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Island Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Island Falls's boundary and the 808 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Island Falls'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 Island Falls's 808 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 Island Falls's 808 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Island Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 808 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Island Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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