Missoula, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Missoula, 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 Missoula 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 Missoula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Missoula — the short answer
Missoula, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 22K 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 Missoula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Missoula's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Missoula
Each reading below is measured for Missoula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMissoula runs about 161 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
MeasuredMissoula 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 Missoula is in
Missoula sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Missoula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Missoula County.
What Grows in Missoula
Every plant below cleared Missoula's own zone 5b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Missoula?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Missoula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Missoula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONROC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PLUM CREEK TIMBER CO SEELEY LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WESTERN SHEET METALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CITY ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SAULTER SITEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TOWN PUMP INC MISSOULA 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 4G PLUMBING & HEATING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MISSOULA ELECTRIC COOP INC MISSOULAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EARL & CHERRY OWENS & WILL BAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LARRY TABISH CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BLUE RIBBONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- INTERMOUNTAIN LUMBER & BUILDING MISSOULAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Missoula'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 Missoula.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Missoula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Missoula
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Missoula
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 Missoula average
Your land is one point inside Missoula
Everything above resolves to Missoula as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Missoula Average
Missoula Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Missoula
- ●One soil character for all of Missoula
- ●Frost dates read at Missoula's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Missoula's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Missoula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Missoula, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Missoula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Missoula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Missoula average
How we know this about Missoula
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 Missoula’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 Missoula
When does frost risk typically end in Missoula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Missoula typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Missoula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Missoula typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Missoula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Missoula sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 23, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Missoula?
The federal record around Missoula is a meaningful one — 582 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (339), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Missoula?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Missoula's scale — its 5b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Missoula'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 Missoula’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Missoula's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,417 acres it covers and 582 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Missoula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Missoula's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 7 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 582 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Missoula, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Missoula's boundary and the 22,417 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Missoula's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Missoula's 22,417 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 Missoula's 22,417 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Missoula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,417 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Missoula-wide figureread your own land →
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