Fort Peck, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Peck, 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 Fort Peck 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 Fort Peck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Peck — the short answer
Fort Peck, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 572 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 572 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 Fort Peck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Peck's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Peck
Each reading below is measured for Fort Peck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Peck runs about 165 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
MeasuredFort Peck 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 Fort Peck is in
Fort Peck sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Peck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Valley County.
What Grows in Fort Peck
Every plant below cleared Fort Peck's own zone 4a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Peck?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Fort Peck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Peck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORT PECK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- USDOD ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS FORT PECKBrownfields · 1800 ft
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS FORT PECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GLASGOW LIVESTOCK SALES CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FORT PECK PROJECTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- FORT PECK PROJECTSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- FORT PECK PROJECTToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- MISSOURI RIVER OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LAKERIDGE LODGING & BAIT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NASHUA CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NASHUA SCHOOL BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 26N40E13BDDA01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Peck'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 Fort Peck.
Total Sites
26
within ~10 miles of Fort Peck
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Peck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Peck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Peck, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Peck. 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 Fort Peck
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 Fort Peck average
Your land is one point inside Fort Peck
Everything above resolves to Fort Peck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 572 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 Fort Peck Average
Fort Peck Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Fort Peck
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Peck
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Peck's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Peck's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Peck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Peck, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Peck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Peck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Peck average
How we know this about Fort Peck
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 Fort Peck’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 Fort Peck
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Peck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Peck typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Fort Peck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Peck typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Peck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Peck sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 24, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Peck?
The federal record around Fort Peck is a meaningful one — 26 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Peck?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Peck's scale — its 4a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Peck'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 Fort Peck’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Peck's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 572 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Peck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Peck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 8 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Peck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Peck's boundary and the 572 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Peck's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Peck's 572 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Valley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Valley 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 Valley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Peck's 572 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Peck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 572 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fort Peck-wide figureread your own land →
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