Alba, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alba, 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 Alba 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 Alba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alba — the short answer
Alba, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 211 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 211 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 7a is Alba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alba's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alba
Each reading below is measured for Alba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlba runs about 229 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlba sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Alba is in
Alba sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alba's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in Alba
Every plant below cleared Alba's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alba?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Alba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T29N R32W 15BCB1Nitrate · 500 ft
- Central MineMining · 1100 ft
- O.K. Mining Co. MineMining · 1100 ft
- R & C MineMining · 1200 ft
- STAR PUMP N PANTRY #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Good Friday MineMining · 1500 ft
- Jersey P. MineMining · 1800 ft
- Montclair MineMining · 2100 ft
- Federated MineMining · 2200 ft
- Isabella MineMining · 2200 ft
- Edwina MineMining · 2200 ft
- Cornfield MineMining · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alba'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 Alba.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alba, Mining runs higher than the national average — 770 sites within ~10 miles of Alba. 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 Alba
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 Alba average
Your land is one point inside Alba
Everything above resolves to Alba as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 211 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 Alba Average
Alba Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Alba
- ●One soil character for all of Alba
- ●Frost dates read at Alba's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alba's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alba, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alba average
How we know this about Alba
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 Alba’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 Alba
When does frost risk typically end in Alba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alba typically lands around Mar 26, 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 Apr 16.
When is the first frost in Alba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alba typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alba sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 27, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alba?
The federal record around Alba runs heavier than most — 1,072 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (770), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 I protect my plants from frost in Alba?
From about Oct 11 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alba's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alba'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 Alba’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alba's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 211 acres it covers and 1,072 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alba's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 10 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,072 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alba, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alba's boundary and the 211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alba's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alba's 211 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alba's 211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Alba-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Growing region
Nearby growing guides