Arrow Rock, 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.
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 Arrow Rock, 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 Arrow Rock 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 Arrow Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arrow Rock — the short answer
Arrow Rock, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 85 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 85 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 Arrow Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arrow Rock's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arrow Rock
Each reading below is measured for Arrow Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArrow Rock runs about 218 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
MeasuredArrow Rock 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 Arrow Rock is in
Arrow Rock sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arrow Rock's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Saline County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arrow Rock
Every plant below cleared Arrow Rock's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arrow Rock?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Arrow Rock
Survey cells within 31 miles of Arrow Rock checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 310 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arrow Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arrow Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARROW ROCK STATE HISTORIC SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- T49N R18W 13ABB1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- T50N R19W 13AAD1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- CARMACK FARMSCAFO · 3.8 mi
- T50N R19W 20DDB1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB CHARLIE-11Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- T50N R19W 16CBC1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- GESSLING FARMS LLCCAFO · 4.5 mi
- T49N R19W 23BDNitrate · 4.6 mi
- Poindexter MineMining · 4.8 mi
- T50N R19W 08DDD1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- T50N R19W 19DANitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arrow Rock'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 Arrow Rock.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Arrow Rock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arrow Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arrow Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arrow Rock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arrow Rock — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Arrow Rock
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 Arrow Rock average
Your land is one point inside Arrow Rock
Everything above resolves to Arrow Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 85 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 Arrow Rock Average
Arrow Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Arrow Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Arrow Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Arrow Rock's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arrow Rock's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arrow Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arrow Rock, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arrow Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arrow Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arrow Rock average
How we know this about Arrow Rock
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 Arrow Rock’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 Arrow Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Arrow Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arrow Rock typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Arrow Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arrow Rock typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arrow Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arrow Rock sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 20, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arrow Rock?
The federal record around Arrow Rock is a meaningful one — 68 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Arrow Rock?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arrow Rock's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arrow Rock'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 Arrow Rock’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arrow Rock's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 85 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arrow Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arrow Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arrow Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arrow Rock's boundary and the 85 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arrow Rock sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Arrow Rock 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 Arrow Rock's 85 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arrow Rock's 85 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arrow Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 85 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Arrow Rock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriArrow Rock sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides