Plentywood, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Plentywood, 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 Plentywood 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 Plentywood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Plentywood — the short answer
Plentywood, Montana: USDA zone 3b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 868 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- 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
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 868 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 Plentywood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plentywood's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plentywood
Each reading below is measured for Plentywood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlentywood runs about 142 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
MeasuredPlentywood 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 Plentywood is in
Plentywood sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Plentywood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sheridan County.
What Grows in Plentywood
Every plant below cleared Plentywood's own zone 3b and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plentywood?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (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 Plentywood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plentywood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FULKERSON FUNERAL HOME INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GARY RUEBUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- KAVON FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- RALPH E MELLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HOLTAN FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LAVERNE G JOHNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SHERWOOD AIRPORT 4603941Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DALE K MCCOYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SHERWOOD AIRPORT 4603357Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- WILLISTON SCOBEY TRANSFER PLENTYWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ROLLIN G MUNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- J BAR E RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plentywood'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 Plentywood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plentywood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plentywood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plentywood, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Plentywood. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Plentywood
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 Plentywood average
Your land is one point inside Plentywood
Everything above resolves to Plentywood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 868 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 Plentywood Average
Plentywood Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Plentywood
- ●One soil character for all of Plentywood
- ●Frost dates read at Plentywood's scale: May 9 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plentywood's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plentywood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plentywood, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plentywood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plentywood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plentywood average
How we know this about Plentywood
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 Plentywood’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 Plentywood
When does frost risk typically end in Plentywood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plentywood typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Plentywood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plentywood 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 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plentywood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plentywood sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 14, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plentywood?
The federal record around Plentywood shows 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Plentywood?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Plentywood 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Plentywood's scale — its 3b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plentywood'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 Plentywood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Plentywood's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 868 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plentywood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plentywood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Sep 28 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plentywood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plentywood's boundary and the 868 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plentywood's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Plentywood's 868 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sheridan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sheridan 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 Sheridan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plentywood's 868 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plentywood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 868 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 Plentywood-wide figureread your own land →
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