Pray, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pray, 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 Pray 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 Pray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pray — the short answer
Pray, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- 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
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 5a is Pray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pray's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pray
Each reading below is measured for Pray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPray runs about 146 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
MeasuredPray sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Pray is in
Pray sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Park County.
What Grows in Pray
Every plant below cleared Pray's own zone 5a and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pray?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Pray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRAY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- RAMBLING ROSE CASINO PREVIOUSLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- EMIGRANT GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Robert E LeeMining · 5.6 mi
- EARTH HOME PROPERTIES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- TRIPLE R RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- SHELTER INVINCIBLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- COMMUNITY CONSERVATION ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- AlaskaMining · 7.2 mi
- BurlesqueMining · 7.2 mi
- Klu Klux ClaimMining · 7.3 mi
- BankMining · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pray'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 Pray.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pray, Mining runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Pray. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Pray
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 Pray average
Your land is one point inside Pray
Everything above resolves to Pray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Pray Average
Pray Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Pray
- ●One soil character for all of Pray
- ●Frost dates read at Pray's scale: May 9 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pray's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pray, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pray average
How we know this about Pray
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 Pray’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 Pray
When does frost risk typically end in Pray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pray 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 Pray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pray 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 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pray sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 18, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pray?
The federal record around Pray is a meaningful one — 42 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (31), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in Pray?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pray 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 174 to 202 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 Pray's scale — its 5a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pray'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 Pray’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pray's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,320 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 2 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pray, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pray's boundary and the 18,320 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pray's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pray's 18,320 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Park County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Park 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 Park County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pray's 18,320 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,320 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 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 Pray-wide figureread your own land →
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