Daniels County, in Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Daniels County lies within the Hi-Line — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Daniels County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Daniels 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 Daniels County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Daniels County — the short answer
Daniels County, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 913K acres.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 913K 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 3b is Daniels County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Daniels County's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Daniels County
Across a year, Daniels County accumulates about 1,635 growing degree days above 50°F, about 35 fewer than the middle Montana county — ahead of 27 of Montana’s 56 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 Daniels County
Across Daniels County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Turner, Vida, and Zahill are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.3, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Daniels County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Daniels County as well drained — but another 7% drains differently: 5% excessively drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Turner is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Vida (11%) and Zahill (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 Daniels County
Each reading below is measured for Daniels 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 Daniels County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Daniels County runs about pH 7.0–7.3, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredDaniels County runs about 142 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
MeasuredDaniels County sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Daniels County is in
Daniels County sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Daniels County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Daniels County's own USDA zone 3b and its own 142-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 Montana profile.
Is it too late to plant in Daniels County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Documented around Daniels County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Daniels County
USGS estimates 371,551 lb of Glyphosate on Daniels County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (93,030 lb) and Bromoxynil (47,803 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 Daniels County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Daniels County — 113 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 brownfield site. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Daniels County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Daniels County
Closest first, across Daniels County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BN FOUR BUTTESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LEONARD JENSENUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FERN FUGEREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SANDRA JACOBSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MARLENEE FARM & RANCH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- DANIELS COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- VITA RICH MILK WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FOUR BUTTES FARMERS ELEV COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 36N48E33CCCA01Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- WHEATLAND TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- PRO CO-OP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- PRO CO-OP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Daniels 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 Daniels County.
Severity Distribution
across Daniels County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Daniels County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites across Daniels County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Daniels 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 Daniels County average
Your land is one point inside Daniels County
Everything above resolves to Daniels County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 913K 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 Daniels County Average
Daniels County Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Daniels County
- ●One soil character for all of Daniels County
- ●Frost dates read at Daniels County's scale: May 9 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Daniels County's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Daniels County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Daniels County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Daniels County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Daniels County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Daniels County average
How we know this about Daniels 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 Daniels County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Daniels County
When does frost risk typically end in Daniels County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Daniels County typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
How long is the growing season in Daniels County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Daniels County sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 14, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Daniels County?
The federal record around Daniels County shows 113 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Daniels County?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Daniels County 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Daniels County's scale — its 3b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Daniels 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 Montana's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Daniels County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Daniels County's own scale — its own ~142-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 113 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Daniels County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Daniels County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Daniels CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 113 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Daniels County's boundary and the 912,812 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Daniels County sitting wholly inside the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Daniels County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Daniels County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Daniels County — the ~142 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 Daniels County's 912,812 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 113 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 Daniels Countyread your own land →