Cut Bank, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cut Bank, 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 Cut Bank 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 Cut Bank — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cut Bank — the short answer
Cut Bank, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 740 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 740 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 4a is Cut Bank's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cut Bank's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cut Bank
Each reading below is measured for Cut Bank itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCut Bank runs about 144 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
MeasuredCut Bank 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 Cut Bank is in
Cut Bank sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cut Bank's own centroid rather than borrowed from Glacier County.
What Grows in Cut Bank
Every plant below cleared Cut Bank's own zone 4a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cut Bank?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Cut Bank
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cut Bank. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAND AND CATTLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- TAYLOR WELL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMIN VOR CUT BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WARREN SWENSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MDOT CUT BANK SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- JOHN GORDON RICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- BIG SKY COLONY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GLENDALE COLONY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- AT & T COMMUNICATIONS SANTA RITA RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WESTERN ENTERPRISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CUT BANK AREA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- REAGAN FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cut Bank'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 Cut Bank.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Cut Bank
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cut Bank
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cut Bank
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cut Bank, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Cut Bank. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Cut Bank
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 Cut Bank average
Your land is one point inside Cut Bank
Everything above resolves to Cut Bank as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 740 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 city 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 Cut Bank Average
Cut Bank Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Cut Bank
- ●One soil character for all of Cut Bank
- ●Frost dates read at Cut Bank's scale: May 7 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cut Bank's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cut Bank
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cut Bank, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cut Bank averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cut Bank — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cut Bank average
How we know this about Cut Bank
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cut Bank’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Cut Bank
When does frost risk typically end in Cut Bank?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cut Bank typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Cut Bank?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cut Bank typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cut Bank?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cut Bank sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 14, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cut Bank?
The federal record around Cut Bank is a meaningful one — 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Cut Bank?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cut Bank 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cut Bank's scale — its 4a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cut Bank'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 Cut Bank’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cut Bank's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 740 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cut Bank's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cut Bank's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 28 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cut Bank, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cut Bank's boundary and the 740 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cut Bank's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cut Bank's 740 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glacier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glacier County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Glacier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cut Bank's 740 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cut Bank you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 740 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 Cut Bank-wide figureread your own land →