Arbyrd, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arbyrd, 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 Arbyrd 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 Arbyrd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arbyrd — the short answer
Arbyrd, Missouri: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 643 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 643 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 8a is Arbyrd's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arbyrd's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arbyrd
Each reading below is measured for Arbyrd itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArbyrd runs about 264 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArbyrd sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Arbyrd is in
Arbyrd sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arbyrd's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dunklin County.
What Grows in Arbyrd
Every plant below cleared Arbyrd's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arbyrd?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Arbyrd
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arbyrd. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T16N R08E 06DBD1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- T16N R08E 06DBDNitrate · 1700 ft
- BOBBY J LANGSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GUTHRIE'S STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ARBYRD WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ARBYRD MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PAUL PHILLIPS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BOB GILLION SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- T17N R08E 19CBD1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- T16N R07E 03DCB1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- SOUTHLAND C-9 SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- T17N R08E 17CCC1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arbyrd'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 Arbyrd.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arbyrd
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arbyrd
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arbyrd, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Arbyrd. 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 Arbyrd
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 Arbyrd average
Your land is one point inside Arbyrd
Everything above resolves to Arbyrd as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 643 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 Arbyrd Average
Arbyrd Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Arbyrd
- ●One soil character for all of Arbyrd
- ●Frost dates read at Arbyrd's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arbyrd's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arbyrd
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arbyrd, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arbyrd averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arbyrd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arbyrd average
How we know this about Arbyrd
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 Arbyrd’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 Arbyrd
When does frost risk typically end in Arbyrd?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arbyrd typically lands around Mar 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 Mar 27.
When is the first frost in Arbyrd?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arbyrd typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arbyrd?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arbyrd sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 11, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arbyrd?
The federal record around Arbyrd shows 72 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Arbyrd?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arbyrd's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arbyrd'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 Arbyrd’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arbyrd's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 643 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arbyrd's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arbyrd's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 25 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arbyrd, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arbyrd's boundary and the 643 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arbyrd's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arbyrd's 643 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dunklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dunklin 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 Dunklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arbyrd's 643 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arbyrd you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 643 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Arbyrd-wide figureread your own land →