Bell City, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — 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, california poppy, 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 Bell City, 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 Bell City 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 Bell City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bell City — the short answer
Bell City, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 352 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 352 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 7a is Bell City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bell City's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bell City
Each reading below is measured for Bell City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBell City runs about 236 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
MeasuredBell City sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Bell City is in
Bell City sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bell City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Stoddard County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bell City
Every plant below cleared Bell City's own zone 7a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bell City?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Bell City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bell City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 184 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bell City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bell City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PATTERSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- T27N R11E 01B 1Nitrate · 850 ft
- BUS GARAGE/BELL CITY R-II SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- T27N R12E 16ABB1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- T28N R11E 31AAA1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- MHTD ADVANCE SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- T27N R12E 28BAA2Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- T27N R12E 28BAA3Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- NESTLE PURINA PETCARE COMPANY BLOOMFIELDBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- GOLDEN CAT DIV OF RALSTON PURINA COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- PERKINS FEED & FERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- T28N R12E 18BBA1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bell City'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 Bell City.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Bell City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bell City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bell City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bell City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bell City — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (30 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 Bell City
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 Bell City average
Your land is one point inside Bell City
Everything above resolves to Bell City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 352 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 Bell City Average
Bell City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bell City
- ●One soil character for all of Bell City
- ●Frost dates read at Bell City's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bell City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bell City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bell City, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bell City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bell City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bell City average
How we know this about Bell City
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 Bell City’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 Bell City
When does frost risk typically end in Bell City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bell City typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Bell City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bell City typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bell City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bell City sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 28, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bell City?
The federal record around Bell City shows 57 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bell City?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bell City's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bell City'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 Bell City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bell City's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 352 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bell City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bell City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 11 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bell City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bell City's boundary and the 352 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bell City sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bell City 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 Bell City's 352 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stoddard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stoddard 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 Stoddard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bell City's 352 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bell City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 352 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bell City-wide figureread your own land →
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