McCone County, in Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
McCone County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across McCone 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 McCone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McCone County — the short answer
McCone County, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 1.7M acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.7M 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 4a is McCone County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCone County's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in McCone County
Across a year, McCone County accumulates about 1,993 growing degree days above 50°F, about 323 more than the middle Montana county — ahead of 41 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 McCone County
Across McCone County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Cambert, Zahill, and Cabba are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across McCone County
Cambert is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Zahill (7%) and Cabba (6%).
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 McCone County
Each reading below is measured for McCone 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 McCone 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 McCone County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMcCone County runs about 152 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
MeasuredMcCone County 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 McCone County is in
McCone County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Great Plains (65%) and Northwestern Glaciated Plains (35%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in McCone County
We scored all 1,086 plants against McCone County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 152-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 McCone County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — 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 gets applied to farmland in McCone County
USGS estimates 385,077 lb of Glyphosate on McCone County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (100,812 lb) and Bromoxynil (36,688 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 McCone County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across McCone County — 332 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across McCone County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near McCone County
Closest first, across McCone County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 22N47E21CDCC02Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 22N46E33DBBD01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 23N47E29DCBB01Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 21N46E29ACDA01Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 21N46E19BCDA01Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 20N46E02ADCD01Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- 22N48E06ABBC01Nitrate · 8.5 mi
- 21N45E16ABBC01Nitrate · 9.5 mi
- 20N48E07BDAC01Nitrate · 9.6 mi
- 21N45E35BCDC01Nitrate · 9.8 mi
- 23N46E03C 01Nitrate · 10.3 mi
- 21N45E34BBDA01Nitrate · 10.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCone 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 McCone County.
Total Sites
332
across McCone County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across McCone County
Severity Distribution
across McCone County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCone County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 296 sites across McCone County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 McCone 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 McCone County average
Your land is one point inside McCone County
Everything above resolves to McCone County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.7M 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 McCone County Average
McCone County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across McCone County
- ●One soil character for all of McCone County
- ●Frost dates read at McCone County's scale: May 5 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCone County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in McCone County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCone County, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCone County averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCone County average
How we know this about McCone 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 McCone County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about McCone County
When does frost risk typically end in McCone County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCone County typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in McCone County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCone County sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 20, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCone County?
The federal record around McCone County is a meaningful one — 332 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (296), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at McCone County's scale — its 4a band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCone 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 McCone County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at McCone County's own scale — its own ~152-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 332 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCone County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCone County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in McCone CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 332 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- McCone County's boundary and the 1,691,023 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions McCone County spans, Northwestern Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto McCone 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 McCone County — the ~152 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 McCone County's 1,691,023 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 332 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 McCone Countyread your own land →