Melstone, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Melstone, 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 Melstone 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 Melstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melstone — the short answer
Melstone, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 394 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 394 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 4b is Melstone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melstone's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melstone
Each reading below is measured for Melstone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelstone 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
MeasuredMelstone sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Melstone is in
Melstone sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Melstone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Musselshell County.
What Grows in Melstone
Every plant below cleared Melstone's own zone 4b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melstone?
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 Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Melstone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melstone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROBERT D SALLEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- JAKES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FORMER MWRR MELSTONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MDOT FORMER MWRRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FOSTER RANCH FEEDLOTCAFO · 6.1 mi
- 11N31E34DAC 01Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 09N30E20AABA01Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- 09N30E30DBAD01Nitrate · 8.2 mi
- 10N32E26BCD 01Nitrate · 9.6 mi
Measured from Melstone'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 Melstone.
Total Sites
13
within ~10 miles of Melstone
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melstone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melstone
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 Melstone
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 Melstone average
Your land is one point inside Melstone
Everything above resolves to Melstone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 394 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 Melstone Average
Melstone Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Melstone
- ●One soil character for all of Melstone
- ●Frost dates read at Melstone's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melstone's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melstone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melstone, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melstone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melstone average
How we know this about Melstone
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 Melstone’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 Melstone
When does frost risk typically end in Melstone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melstone typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Melstone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melstone typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melstone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melstone sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 25, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melstone?
The federal record around Melstone is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Melstone?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melstone's scale — its 4b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melstone'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 Melstone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Melstone's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 394 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melstone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melstone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 9 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melstone, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melstone's boundary and the 394 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melstone's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Melstone's 394 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Musselshell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Musselshell 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 Musselshell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melstone's 394 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melstone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 394 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 Melstone-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaMelstone sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides