Montello, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Montello, 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 Montello 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 Montello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montello — the short answer
Montello, Nevada: USDA zone 5b, about 122 days between hard freezes, across 263 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~122
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 263 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 Montello's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montello's 122-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montello
Each reading below is measured for Montello itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontello runs about 122 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
MeasuredMontello 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 Montello is in
Montello sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Montello's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elko County.
What Grows in Montello
Every plant below cleared Montello's own zone 5b and its 122-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montello?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — 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 Montello
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montello. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONTELLO SHEELITESuperfund · 2000 ft
- Southern Pacific Transportation CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Brico Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Montello GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Reds ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RMLR QTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Pyper/Wilson MinesMining · 4.1 mi
- Castle ParkMining · 7.5 mi
- TecomaMining · 7.7 mi
- Uneeta ClaimMining · 7.9 mi
- Soliday ClaimMining · 7.9 mi
- SolidayMining · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montello'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 Montello.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Montello
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montello
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montello, Mining runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Montello. 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 Montello
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 Montello average
Your land is one point inside Montello
Everything above resolves to Montello as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 263 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 Montello Average
Montello Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Montello
- ●One soil character for all of Montello
- ●Frost dates read at Montello's scale: May 20 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montello's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montello
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montello, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montello averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montello average
How we know this about Montello
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 Montello’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 Montello
When does frost risk typically end in Montello?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montello typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Montello?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montello typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 122 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montello?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montello sees about 122 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 5, about 87 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montello?
The federal record around Montello runs heavier than most — 69 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (63), the nearest Superfund 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 Montello?
With about 122 frost-free days between hard freezes, Montello 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 150 to 178 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Montello's scale — its 5b band and its 122-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montello'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 Montello’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Montello's own scale — its own ~122-day season between 28°F freezes, the 263 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montello's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montello's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 19 and the ~122-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montello, the closest Superfund record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montello's boundary and the 263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~122-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montello's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montello's 263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elko County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elko County
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Elko County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montello's 263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montello you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 263 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Montello-wide figureread your own land →