Belton, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Belton, 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 Belton 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 Belton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belton — the short answer
Belton, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Belton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belton's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belton
Each reading below is measured for Belton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelton runs about 224 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
MeasuredBelton 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 Belton is in
Belton sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Belton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Belton
Every plant below cleared Belton's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Belton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T46N R33W 11Nitrate · 800 ft
- STILES PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- T46N R33W 14BAC1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #13284Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SUMMIT CAR CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BP FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WYMAN'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5661Brownfields · 1900 ft
- MINIT MART #580 BELTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- T46N R33W 14ABB1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- FASTOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 116Brownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belton'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 Belton.
Total Sites
703
within ~10 miles of Belton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belton
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 Belton
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 Belton average
Your land is one point inside Belton
Everything above resolves to Belton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Belton Average
Belton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Belton
- ●One soil character for all of Belton
- ●Frost dates read at Belton's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belton, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belton average
How we know this about Belton
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 Belton’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 Belton
When does frost risk typically end in Belton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belton typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Belton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belton typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belton sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 25, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belton?
The federal record around Belton is a meaningful one — 703 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (329), the nearest Nitrate 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 Belton?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belton's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belton'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 Belton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belton's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,224 acres it covers and 703 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 8 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 703 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belton's boundary and the 9,224 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belton's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belton's 9,224 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belton's 9,224 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,224 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 Belton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriBelton sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides