Armstrong, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Armstrong, 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 Armstrong 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 Armstrong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Armstrong — the short answer
Armstrong, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 525 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 525 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 6b is Armstrong's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Armstrong's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Armstrong
Each reading below is measured for Armstrong itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArmstrong runs about 222 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
MeasuredArmstrong sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Armstrong is in
Armstrong sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Armstrong's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Howard County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Armstrong
Every plant below cleared Armstrong's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Armstrong?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Armstrong
Survey cells within 31 miles of Armstrong checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 291 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Armstrong
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Armstrong. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T52N R16W 27CDA1Nitrate · 600 ft
- ARMSTRONG MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- YUNGS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- FREVERT'S ROANOKE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- BOB WILHOIT & SON (ONE STOP PHIL.66Underground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- STALLMAN'S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- APCO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- SILVER CREEK PIGS INC.CAFO · 7.7 mi
- GLASGOW EQUIPMENT CO INCBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- K & J AUTOBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- PHOENIX MANUFACTURING, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 8.0 mi
- PHOENIX MANUFACTURING, LLCBrownfields · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Armstrong'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 Armstrong.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Armstrong
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Armstrong
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Armstrong
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Armstrong
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 Armstrong average
Your land is one point inside Armstrong
Everything above resolves to Armstrong as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 525 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 Armstrong Average
Armstrong Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Armstrong
- ●One soil character for all of Armstrong
- ●Frost dates read at Armstrong's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Armstrong's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Armstrong
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Armstrong, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Armstrong averages can't show:
We read public map data around Armstrong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Armstrong average
How we know this about Armstrong
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 Armstrong’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 Armstrong
When does frost risk typically end in Armstrong?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Armstrong typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Armstrong?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Armstrong typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Armstrong?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Armstrong sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Armstrong?
The federal record around Armstrong is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Armstrong?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Armstrong's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Armstrong'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 Armstrong’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Armstrong's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 525 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Armstrong's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Armstrong's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 5 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Armstrong, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Armstrong's boundary and the 525 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Armstrong sits in the Central Irregular Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Armstrong checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Armstrong's 525 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Armstrong's 525 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Armstrong you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 525 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Armstrong-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriArmstrong sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides