Bucklin, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Bucklin, 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 Bucklin 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 Bucklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bucklin — the short answer
Bucklin, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 756 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 756 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 6a is Bucklin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bucklin's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bucklin
Each reading below is measured for Bucklin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBucklin runs about 212 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
MeasuredBucklin sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bucklin is in
Bucklin sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bucklin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Linn County.
What Grows in Bucklin
Every plant below cleared Bucklin's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bucklin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. 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 Bucklin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bucklin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLES W. HULETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PRENGERS CASH SAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BUCKLIN R 2 SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CUPP'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- NEWLIN FARMSCAFO · 3.9 mi
- HERFF JONES INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- KING SUPER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2052Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- PERSHING REGIONAL HEALTH CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- HAMILTON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- FORMENTO PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- MARCELINE R-V PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bucklin'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 Bucklin.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Bucklin
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bucklin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bucklin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bucklin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Bucklin. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bucklin
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 Bucklin average
Your land is one point inside Bucklin
Everything above resolves to Bucklin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 756 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 Bucklin Average
Bucklin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bucklin
- ●One soil character for all of Bucklin
- ●Frost dates read at Bucklin's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bucklin's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bucklin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bucklin, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bucklin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bucklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bucklin average
How we know this about Bucklin
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 Bucklin’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 Bucklin
When does frost risk typically end in Bucklin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bucklin typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Bucklin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bucklin 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 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bucklin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bucklin sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bucklin?
The federal record around Bucklin is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bucklin?
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 Bucklin's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bucklin'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 Bucklin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bucklin's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 756 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bucklin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bucklin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bucklin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bucklin's boundary and the 756 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bucklin's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bucklin's 756 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Linn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Linn 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 Linn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bucklin's 756 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bucklin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 756 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 Bucklin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriBucklin sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides