Berger, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Berger, 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 Berger 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 Berger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berger — the short answer
Berger, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 206 acres of city.
- 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 206 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 Berger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berger's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berger
Each reading below is measured for Berger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerger runs about 216 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
MeasuredBerger 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 Berger is in
Berger sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Berger's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Ozark Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Berger
Every plant below cleared Berger's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berger?
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 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 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Berger
Survey cells within 31 miles of Berger checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 273 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Berger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T45N R04W 11BAB1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- BERGER GARAGE DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- US TECHNOLOGY CORPSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- US TECHNOLOGY CORPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- GDX AUTOMOTIVEToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- T45N R03W 06CAB1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- HERMANN R.S.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- STEVEN MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- Unknown - Lead - ZincMining · 4.5 mi
- SPG LASER LIGHT TECHNOLOGIES LLCBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- KALLMEYER BROS ENT, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- T46N R05W 36CDB1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berger'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 Berger.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berger, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Berger — Superfund (5 sites) and Nitrate (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Berger
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 Berger average
Your land is one point inside Berger
Everything above resolves to Berger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 206 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 Berger Average
Berger Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Berger
- ●One soil character for all of Berger
- ●Frost dates read at Berger's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berger's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berger, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berger average
How we know this about Berger
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 Berger’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 Berger
When does frost risk typically end in Berger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berger 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 Berger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berger typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berger sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 18, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berger?
The federal record around Berger is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Berger?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Berger's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berger'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 Berger’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Berger's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 206 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 1 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berger, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berger's boundary and the 206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Berger sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Berger 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 Berger's 206 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berger's 206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 206 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 Berger-wide figureread your own land →
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