Victor, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Victor, 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 Victor 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 Victor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Victor — the short answer
Victor, Montana: USDA zone 5b, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 286 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 286 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 Victor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Victor's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Victor
Each reading below is measured for Victor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVictor 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
MeasuredVictor 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 Victor is in
Victor sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Victor's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ravalli County is mostly Idaho Batholith. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Victor
Every plant below cleared Victor's own zone 5b and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Victor?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Victor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Victor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BITTERROOT VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VICTOR SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- VICTOR VETERINARY CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARY ROSES FURNITURE RESTORATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KAY CASSENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 08N21W26DD 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- ALPINE LOG HOMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 08N21W24ACDB01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- GCI SHOPBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 08N20W18DD 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- BIG CREEK DAIRYCAFO · 2.1 mi
- FORMER VICTOR AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Victor'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 Victor.
Total Sites
313
within ~10 miles of Victor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Victor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Victor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Victor, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 256 sites within ~10 miles of Victor. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Victor
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 Victor average
Your land is one point inside Victor
Everything above resolves to Victor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 286 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 Victor Average
Victor Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Victor
- ●One soil character for all of Victor
- ●Frost dates read at Victor's scale: May 7 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Victor's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Victor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Victor, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Victor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Victor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Victor average
How we know this about Victor
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 Victor’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 Victor
When does frost risk typically end in Victor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Victor typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Victor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Victor typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Victor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Victor sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 16, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Victor?
The federal record around Victor is a meaningful one — 313 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (256), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Victor?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Victor 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 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Victor's scale — its 5b band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Victor'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 Victor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Victor's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 286 acres it covers and 313 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Victor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Victor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 30 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 313 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Victor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Victor's boundary and the 286 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Victor sits in the Middle Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Victor's 286 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ravalli County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ravalli 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 Ravalli County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Victor's 286 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Victor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 286 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 Victor-wide figureread your own land →
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