Kingfield, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Kingfield, 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 Kingfield 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 Kingfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kingfield — the short answer
Kingfield, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Kingfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingfield's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kingfield
Each reading below is measured for Kingfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKingfield runs about 170 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
MeasuredKingfield 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 Kingfield is in
Kingfield sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Kingfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Kingfield
Every plant below cleared Kingfield's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kingfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Kingfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Kingfield, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kingfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kingfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H G WINTER & SONS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- KINGFIELD WOOD PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- KINGFIELD WOOD PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- KNAPP BROTHERS INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- TRANTENS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- H G WINTER & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KINGFIELD POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KNAPP BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TRANTENS TOOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FW 839Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- ARC ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingfield'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 Kingfield.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Kingfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kingfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kingfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingfield, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Kingfield. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Kingfield
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 Kingfield average
Your land is one point inside Kingfield
Everything above resolves to Kingfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Kingfield Average
Kingfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Kingfield
- ●One soil character for all of Kingfield
- ●Frost dates read at Kingfield's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingfield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kingfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingfield, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingfield average
How we know this about Kingfield
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 Kingfield’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 Kingfield
When does frost risk typically end in Kingfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingfield typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Kingfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kingfield typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kingfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingfield sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 30, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingfield?
The federal record around Kingfield shows 39 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Kingfield?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kingfield's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingfield'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 Kingfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kingfield's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,328 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kingfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kingfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 14 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kingfield, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kingfield's boundary and the 2,328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kingfield's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kingfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kingfield's 2,328 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kingfield's 2,328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kingfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,328 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Kingfield-wide figureread your own land →