Malta, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Malta, 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 Malta 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 Malta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Malta — the short answer
Malta, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 153 days between hard freezes, across 687 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~153
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 687 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 Malta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Malta's 153-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Malta
Each reading below is measured for Malta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMalta 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
MeasuredMalta 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 Malta is in
Malta sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Malta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Malta
Every plant below cleared Malta's own zone 4a and its 153-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Malta?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — 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 Malta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Malta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DON WATERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PHILLIPS COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- GEORGE LUNDMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- VAN VOAST RANCH USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PHILLIPS COUNTY VET CLINIC PSCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BN MALTA MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MAITA READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RAY HOLZHEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RANDY SHORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- M & F CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BIG FLAT ELECTRIC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MALTA CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Malta'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 Malta.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Malta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Malta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Malta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Malta, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Malta. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Malta
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 Malta average
Your land is one point inside Malta
Everything above resolves to Malta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 687 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 Malta Average
Malta Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Malta
- ●One soil character for all of Malta
- ●Frost dates read at Malta's scale: May 3 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Malta's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Malta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Malta, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Malta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Malta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Malta average
How we know this about Malta
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 Malta’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 Malta
When does frost risk typically end in Malta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Malta typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Malta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Malta typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 153 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Malta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Malta sees about 153 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 19, about 118 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Malta?
The federal record around Malta is a meaningful one — 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Malta?
From about Sep 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Malta's scale — its 4a band and its 153-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Malta'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 Malta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Malta's own scale — its own ~153-day season between 28°F freezes, the 687 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Malta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Malta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 3 and the ~153-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Malta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Malta's boundary and the 687 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~153-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Malta's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Malta's 687 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 Malta's 687 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Malta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 687 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 Malta-wide figureread your own land →
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