Amity, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Amity, 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 Amity 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 Amity — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Amity — the short answer
Amity, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 111 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)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Amity's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amity's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Amity
Each reading below is measured for Amity itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmity runs about 209 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
MeasuredAmity 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 Amity is in
Amity sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Amity's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeKalb County.
What Grows in Amity
Every plant below cleared Amity's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Amity?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 1 — 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 Amity
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Amity. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T58N R31W 07CBC1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- T59N R32W 36DDNitrate · 0.8 mi
- T58N R32W 13DAA1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- FILES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- WELLS IMPLEMENTBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- T59N R31W 34DDNitrate · 3.7 mi
- MFA EXCHANGE DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- TAYLOR CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- STEVE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2537Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- MAYSVILLE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- MAYSVILLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amity'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 Amity.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Amity
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amity, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Amity. 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 Amity
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 Amity average
Your land is one point inside Amity
Everything above resolves to Amity as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 Amity Average
Amity Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Amity
- ●One soil character for all of Amity
- ●Frost dates read at Amity's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amity's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Amity
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amity, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amity averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amity — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amity average
How we know this about Amity
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 Amity’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 Amity
When does frost risk typically end in Amity?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amity 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 Amity?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Amity typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Amity?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amity sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amity?
The federal record around Amity is light — 48 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Amity?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Amity's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amity'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 Amity’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Amity's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amity's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amity's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Amity, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Amity's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Amity's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Amity's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amity's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Amity you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Amity-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriAmity sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides