Huson, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Huson, 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 Huson 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 Huson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Huson — the short answer
Huson, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 490 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 490 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 5b is Huson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Huson's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Huson
Each reading below is measured for Huson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHuson runs about 153 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
MeasuredHuson sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Huson is in
Huson sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Huson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Missoula County.
What Grows in Huson
Every plant below cleared Huson's own zone 5b and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Huson?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (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's on the federal record near Huson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Huson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NINE MILE RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HUSON MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- USDA USFS R01 MSLA INTERMOUNTAIN RESEARCHBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 15N22W14DCBB01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 15N21W31BA 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 15N22W28BADC01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 15N21W29ADBC01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 15N21W29DA 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 15N21W17DBCD01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- ORRAL LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- DON LATHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 15N21W17DBAD01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Huson'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 Huson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Huson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Huson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Huson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Huson — Mining (10 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Huson
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 Huson average
Your land is one point inside Huson
Everything above resolves to Huson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 490 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 Huson Average
Huson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Huson
- ●One soil character for all of Huson
- ●Frost dates read at Huson's scale: May 4 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Huson's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Huson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Huson, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Huson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Huson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Huson average
How we know this about Huson
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 Huson’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 Huson
When does frost risk typically end in Huson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Huson typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Huson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Huson typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Huson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Huson sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 20, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Huson?
The federal record around Huson is a meaningful one — 70 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Huson?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Huson's scale — its 5b band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Huson'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 Huson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Huson's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 490 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Huson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Huson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 4 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Huson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Huson's boundary and the 490 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Huson's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Huson's 490 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Missoula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Missoula 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 Missoula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Huson's 490 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Huson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 490 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Huson-wide figureread your own land →
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