Moccasin, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moccasin, 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 Moccasin 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 Moccasin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moccasin — the short answer
Moccasin, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 203 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 203 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 Moccasin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moccasin's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moccasin
Each reading below is measured for Moccasin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoccasin runs about 147 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
MeasuredMoccasin 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 Moccasin is in
Moccasin sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Moccasin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Judith Basin County.
What Grows in Moccasin
Every plant below cleared Moccasin's own zone 4b and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moccasin?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — 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 Moccasin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moccasin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 15N14E23ACA 01Nitrate · 500 ft
- DALE WEISUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MALMSTROM AFB C 7Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MALMSTROM AFB C 6Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CENTRAL AG RESEARCH CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 15N14E16DCDD01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB C 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB C 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB M 10Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MALMSTROM AFB M 9Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WOODHALL DISTRIBUTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- HOBSON SCHOOL DIST 25Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moccasin'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 Moccasin.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Moccasin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moccasin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moccasin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moccasin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Moccasin — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Moccasin
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 Moccasin average
Your land is one point inside Moccasin
Everything above resolves to Moccasin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 203 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 Moccasin Average
Moccasin Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Moccasin
- ●One soil character for all of Moccasin
- ●Frost dates read at Moccasin's scale: May 8 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moccasin's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moccasin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moccasin, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moccasin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moccasin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moccasin average
How we know this about Moccasin
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 Moccasin’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 Moccasin
When does frost risk typically end in Moccasin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moccasin typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Moccasin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moccasin typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moccasin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moccasin sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 18, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moccasin?
The federal record around Moccasin shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Moccasin?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Moccasin 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 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Moccasin's scale — its 4b band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moccasin'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 Moccasin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moccasin's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 203 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moccasin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moccasin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 2 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moccasin, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moccasin's boundary and the 203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moccasin's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moccasin's 203 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Judith Basin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Judith Basin 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 Judith Basin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moccasin's 203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moccasin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 203 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Moccasin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaMoccasin sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides