White Sulphur Springs, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in White Sulphur Springs, 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 White Sulphur Springs 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 White Sulphur Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Sulphur Springs — the short answer
White Sulphur Springs, Montana: USDA zone 4b, about 139 days between hard freezes, across 634 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- 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
- ~139
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 634 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 White Sulphur Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Sulphur Springs's 139-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Sulphur Springs
Each reading below is measured for White Sulphur Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Sulphur Springs runs about 139 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
MeasuredWhite Sulphur Springs 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 White Sulphur Springs is in
White Sulphur Springs sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at White Sulphur Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Meagher County.
What Grows in White Sulphur Springs
Every plant below cleared White Sulphur Springs's own zone 4b and its 139-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Sulphur Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near White Sulphur Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Sulphur Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEAGHER COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS SCHOOL DIST 8Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS SCHOOLBrownfields · 300 ft
- MEAGHER COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CAMAS CREEK CATTLE & SHEEP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- VAN OIL CO AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- VAN OIL CO 12 W MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BERG GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OLD SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TENDERFOOT MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- T & W REPAIRBrownfields · 1400 ft
- TOWN PUMP INC WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS E MAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Sulphur Springs'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 White Sulphur Springs.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of White Sulphur Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 mining sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Sulphur Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Sulphur Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Sulphur Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Sulphur Springs — Mining (3 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in White Sulphur Springs
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 White Sulphur Springs average
Your land is one point inside White Sulphur Springs
Everything above resolves to White Sulphur Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 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 White Sulphur Springs Average
White Sulphur Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across White Sulphur Springs
- ●One soil character for all of White Sulphur Springs
- ●Frost dates read at White Sulphur Springs's scale: May 12 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Sulphur Springs's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Sulphur Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Sulphur Springs, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Sulphur Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Sulphur Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Sulphur Springs average
How we know this about White Sulphur Springs
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 White Sulphur Springs’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 White Sulphur Springs
When does frost risk typically end in White Sulphur Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Sulphur Springs typically lands around May 12, 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 Jun 2.
When is the first frost in White Sulphur Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Sulphur Springs 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 139 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Sulphur Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Sulphur Springs sees about 139 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 14, about 104 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Sulphur Springs?
The federal record around White Sulphur Springs shows 36 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), 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 White Sulphur Springs?
With about 139 frost-free days between hard freezes, White Sulphur Springs 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 167 to 195 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at White Sulphur Springs's scale — its 4b band and its 139-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Sulphur Springs'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 White Sulphur Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Sulphur Springs's own scale — its own ~139-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Sulphur Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Sulphur Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Sep 28 and the ~139-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Sulphur Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Sulphur Springs's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~139-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Sulphur Springs's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Sulphur Springs's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Meagher County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Meagher 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 Meagher County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Sulphur Springs's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Sulphur Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 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 White Sulphur Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWhite Sulphur Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides