Fortine, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fortine, 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 Fortine 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 Fortine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fortine — the short answer
Fortine, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Fortine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fortine's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fortine
Each reading below is measured for Fortine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFortine 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
MeasuredFortine 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 Fortine is in
Fortine sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Fortine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Fortine
Every plant below cleared Fortine's own zone 5a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fortine?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Fortine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fortine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 35N26W25AB 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- CRYSTAL LAKES RESORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WEYDEMEYER TIMBER & CATTLE FUEL STORAGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 35N26W25CA 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 35N25W31CA 01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- FORTINE MERCANTILE US 93Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 35N26W14BD 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Rex MineMining · 3.4 mi
- THE TREGO GENERAL STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- ANT FLAT WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- TREGO SCHOOL DIST 53Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- FRED W & MARGUERIT TITCHBOURNEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fortine'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 Fortine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fortine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fortine
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Fortine
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 Fortine average
Your land is one point inside Fortine
Everything above resolves to Fortine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Fortine Average
Fortine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fortine
- ●One soil character for all of Fortine
- ●Frost dates read at Fortine's scale: May 8 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fortine's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fortine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fortine, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fortine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fortine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fortine average
How we know this about Fortine
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 Fortine’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 Fortine
When does frost risk typically end in Fortine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fortine typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Fortine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fortine typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fortine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fortine sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 15, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fortine?
The federal record around Fortine shows 23 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (11), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Fortine?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fortine 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 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fortine's scale — its 5a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fortine'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 Fortine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fortine's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,538 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fortine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fortine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 29 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fortine, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fortine's boundary and the 4,538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fortine's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fortine's 4,538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fortine's 4,538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fortine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,538 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Fortine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaFortine sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides