Mattawamkeag, Maine, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mattawamkeag, 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 Mattawamkeag 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 Mattawamkeag — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mattawamkeag — the short answer
Mattawamkeag, Maine: USDA zone 5a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- 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 Mattawamkeag's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mattawamkeag's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mattawamkeag
Each reading below is measured for Mattawamkeag itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMattawamkeag runs about 167 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
MeasuredMattawamkeag 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 Mattawamkeag is in
Mattawamkeag sits in the Acadian Plains and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mattawamkeag's own centroid rather than borrowed from Penobscot County.
What Grows in Mattawamkeag
Every plant below cleared Mattawamkeag's own zone 5a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maine profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mattawamkeag?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Mattawamkeag
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mattawamkeag. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAILYARD EASTERN ME RRUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- KEAG VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CANADIAN ATLANTIC RAILWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BIG APPLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- VH WYMAN & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FORSTER MFG CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HAYNES TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MADDEN, EVAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WINN GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BROOKFIELD FACILITY - WELDONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- SOUCIE, WILLIAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mattawamkeag'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 Mattawamkeag.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mattawamkeag
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mattawamkeag, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Mattawamkeag. 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 Mattawamkeag
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 Mattawamkeag average
Your land is one point inside Mattawamkeag
Everything above resolves to Mattawamkeag 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 Mattawamkeag Average
Mattawamkeag Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Mattawamkeag
- ●One soil character for all of Mattawamkeag
- ●Frost dates read at Mattawamkeag's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mattawamkeag's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mattawamkeag
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mattawamkeag, Maine — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mattawamkeag averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mattawamkeag — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mattawamkeag average
How we know this about Mattawamkeag
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 Mattawamkeag’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 Mattawamkeag
When does frost risk typically end in Mattawamkeag?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mattawamkeag typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Mattawamkeag?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mattawamkeag typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mattawamkeag?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mattawamkeag sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 28, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mattawamkeag?
The federal record around Mattawamkeag is light — 25 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mattawamkeag?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mattawamkeag's scale — its 5a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mattawamkeag'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 Mattawamkeag’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mattawamkeag's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,816 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mattawamkeag's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mattawamkeag's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 12 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mattawamkeag, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mattawamkeag's boundary and the 1,816 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mattawamkeag'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 Mattawamkeag's 1,816 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Penobscot County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Penobscot 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 Penobscot County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mattawamkeag's 1,816 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mattawamkeag you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,816 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mattawamkeag-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maine
Wider growing context
What grows across MaineMattawamkeag sits outside our named growing regions, so Maine as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides