Altamont, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Altamont, 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 Altamont 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 Altamont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Altamont — the short answer
Altamont, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 164 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 164 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 6a is Altamont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altamont's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altamont
Each reading below is measured for Altamont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAltamont runs about 206 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
MeasuredAltamont sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Altamont is in
Altamont sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Altamont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Daviess County.
What Grows in Altamont
Every plant below cleared Altamont's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altamont?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Altamont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altamont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WINSTON PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- T59N R28W 34DDD1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- CLINTON COUNTY PWSD 3PFAS · 3.5 mi
- TERRY IMPLEMENT CO INCBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- TREX MART #16Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- T58N R29W 05CBA1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- T58N R29W 05CCB1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- TERRY IMPLEMENT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- T58N R29W 36DBD1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- GALLATIN MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- STAN'S TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altamont'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 Altamont.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Altamont
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altamont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altamont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Altamont, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Altamont. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Altamont
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 Altamont average
Your land is one point inside Altamont
Everything above resolves to Altamont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 164 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 Altamont Average
Altamont Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Altamont
- ●One soil character for all of Altamont
- ●Frost dates read at Altamont's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altamont's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altamont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altamont, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altamont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altamont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altamont average
How we know this about Altamont
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 Altamont’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 Altamont
When does frost risk typically end in Altamont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altamont typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Altamont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altamont typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altamont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altamont sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altamont?
The federal record around Altamont shows 32 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Altamont?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Altamont's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altamont'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 Altamont’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Altamont's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 164 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altamont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Altamont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altamont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altamont's boundary and the 164 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Altamont's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Altamont's 164 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Daviess 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 Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altamont's 164 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altamont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 164 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 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 Altamont-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriAltamont sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides