Blackwater, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blackwater, 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 Blackwater 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 Blackwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blackwater — the short answer
Blackwater, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 210 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 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 210 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 Blackwater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blackwater's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blackwater
Each reading below is measured for Blackwater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlackwater runs about 219 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
MeasuredBlackwater 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 Blackwater is in
Blackwater sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blackwater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cooper County.
What Grows in Blackwater
Every plant below cleared Blackwater's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blackwater?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 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 Blackwater
Survey cells within 31 miles of Blackwater checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 316 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blackwater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blackwater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T49N R19W 29AANitrate · 1.8 mi
- Poindexter MineMining · 2.1 mi
- Mccauley-WidelMining · 2.1 mi
- T49N R19W 23BDNitrate · 2.2 mi
- BLACKWATER MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Scott MineMining · 2.3 mi
- T49N R19W 29BANitrate · 2.3 mi
- T49N R19W 29BBC1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- NELSON HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- RUSTIC ACRES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BILLS GARAGEBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB BRAVO-4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blackwater'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 Blackwater.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Blackwater
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blackwater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blackwater
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blackwater, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blackwater — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Blackwater
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 Blackwater average
Your land is one point inside Blackwater
Everything above resolves to Blackwater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 210 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 Blackwater Average
Blackwater Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Blackwater
- ●One soil character for all of Blackwater
- ●Frost dates read at Blackwater's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blackwater's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blackwater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blackwater, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blackwater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blackwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blackwater average
How we know this about Blackwater
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 Blackwater’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 Blackwater
When does frost risk typically end in Blackwater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blackwater 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 Blackwater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blackwater 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 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blackwater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blackwater sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 20, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blackwater?
The federal record around Blackwater is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Blackwater?
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 Blackwater's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blackwater'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 Blackwater’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blackwater's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 210 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blackwater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blackwater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 3 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blackwater, the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blackwater's boundary and the 210 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blackwater's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Blackwater 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 Blackwater's 210 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cooper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cooper 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 Cooper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blackwater's 210 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blackwater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 210 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Blackwater-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriBlackwater sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides