Wise River, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and okra — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wise River, 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 Wise River 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 Wise River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wise River — the short answer
Wise River, Montana: USDA zone 4a, about 85 days between hard freezes, across 473 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~85
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 473 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 4a is Wise River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wise River's 85-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wise River
Each reading below is measured for Wise River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWise River runs about 85 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
MeasuredWise River sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Wise River is in
Wise River sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Wise River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaverhead County.
What Grows in Wise River
Every plant below cleared Wise River's own zone 4a and its 85-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wise River?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 1 — 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 Wise River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wise River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WISE RIVER MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Madison MineMining · 1.9 mi
- Wise River-Johnson Creek AreaMining · 2.1 mi
- Unknown ShaftMining · 2.5 mi
- Quartz Hill SynclineMining · 3.3 mi
- Churchill MineMining · 3.5 mi
- Star MineMining · 4.1 mi
- Star No. 1-3Mining · 4.1 mi
- Fraser PlacerMining · 4.4 mi
- Monte Cristo MineMining · 4.7 mi
- Aurora MineMining · 5.1 mi
- Pettingill MineMining · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wise River'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 Wise River.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wise River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wise River, Mining runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Wise River. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Wise River
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 Wise River average
Your land is one point inside Wise River
Everything above resolves to Wise River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 473 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 Wise River Average
Wise River Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Wise River
- ●One soil character for all of Wise River
- ●Frost dates read at Wise River's scale: Jun 8 to Sep 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wise River's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wise River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wise River, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wise River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wise River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wise River average
How we know this about Wise River
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 Wise River’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 Wise River
When does frost risk typically end in Wise River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wise River typically lands around Jun 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 Jun 29.
When is the first frost in Wise River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wise River typically arrives around Sep 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 18, so the watching starts about Aug 2 — about 85 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wise River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wise River sees about 85 frost-free days — roughly Jun 8 through Sep 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 29 to Aug 18, about 50 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wise River?
The federal record around Wise River runs heavier than most — 63 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Wise River?
With about 85 frost-free days between hard freezes, Wise River 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 113 to 141 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Wise River's scale — its 4a band and its 85-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wise River'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 Wise River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wise River's own scale — its own ~85-day season between 28°F freezes, the 473 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wise River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wise River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 8 and Sep 1 and the ~85-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wise River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wise River's boundary and the 473 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~85-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wise River's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wise River's 473 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaverhead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaverhead 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 Beaverhead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wise River's 473 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wise River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 473 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Wise River-wide figureread your own land →
More in Montana
Wider growing context
What grows across MontanaWise River sits outside our named growing regions, so Montana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides