Loring Colony, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Loring Colony, 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 Loring Colony 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 Loring Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loring Colony — the short answer
Loring Colony, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 237 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- 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
- ~137
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 237 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 3b is Loring Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loring Colony's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loring Colony
Each reading below is measured for Loring Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoring Colony runs about 137 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
MeasuredLoring Colony sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Loring Colony is in
Loring Colony sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Loring Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Loring Colony
Every plant below cleared Loring Colony's own zone 3b and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loring Colony?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (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. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Loring Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loring Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LORING HUTTERITE BRETHRENCAFO · 1500 ft
- 35N28E13AABD01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- BN LORING DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 35N30E19CD 01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 35N30E31 01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- LORING AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- 36N29E05DAAC01Nitrate · 8.9 mi
Measured from Loring Colony'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 Loring Colony.
Total Sites
11
within ~10 miles of Loring Colony
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loring Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loring Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Loring Colony
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 Loring Colony average
Your land is one point inside Loring Colony
Everything above resolves to Loring Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 237 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 Loring Colony Average
Loring Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Loring Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Loring Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Loring Colony's scale: May 14 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loring Colony's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loring Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loring Colony, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loring Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loring Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loring Colony average
How we know this about Loring Colony
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 Loring Colony’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 Loring Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Loring Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loring Colony typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
When is the first frost in Loring Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loring Colony 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 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loring Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loring Colony sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 14, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loring Colony?
The federal record around Loring Colony is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest CAFO record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Loring Colony?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Loring Colony 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 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Loring Colony's scale — its 3b band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loring Colony'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 Loring Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Loring Colony's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 237 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loring Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loring Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 28 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loring Colony, the closest CAFO record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loring Colony's boundary and the 237 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loring Colony's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loring Colony's 237 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phillips County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phillips 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 Phillips County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loring Colony's 237 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loring Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 237 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.3 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 Loring Colony-wide figureread your own land →
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