Bunceton, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Bunceton, 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 Bunceton 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 Bunceton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bunceton — the short answer
Bunceton, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 604 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 604 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 Bunceton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bunceton's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bunceton
Each reading below is measured for Bunceton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBunceton runs about 225 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
MeasuredBunceton 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 Bunceton is in
Bunceton sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bunceton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cooper County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bunceton
Every plant below cleared Bunceton's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bunceton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Bunceton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bunceton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 317 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bunceton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bunceton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COOPER CO MAINTENANCE SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BUNCETON SERVICE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LESLIE'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MISSOURI BETTER BEANSuperfund · 850 ft
- FARMERS ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TOELLNER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BUNCETON MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- T46N R17W 04BBB1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- COOPER COUNTY R-IV SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WHITEMAN AFB CHARLIE-4Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- B K FARMS HOME SITECAFO · 3.8 mi
- Unknown - LeadMining · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bunceton'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 Bunceton.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Bunceton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bunceton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bunceton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bunceton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bunceton — CAFO (5 sites) and Mining (5 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Bunceton
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 Bunceton average
Your land is one point inside Bunceton
Everything above resolves to Bunceton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 604 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 Bunceton Average
Bunceton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bunceton
- ●One soil character for all of Bunceton
- ●Frost dates read at Bunceton's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bunceton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bunceton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bunceton, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bunceton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bunceton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bunceton average
How we know this about Bunceton
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 Bunceton’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 Bunceton
When does frost risk typically end in Bunceton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bunceton typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Bunceton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bunceton typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bunceton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bunceton sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bunceton?
The federal record around Bunceton is a meaningful one — 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bunceton?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bunceton's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bunceton'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 Bunceton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bunceton's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 604 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bunceton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bunceton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bunceton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bunceton's boundary and the 604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bunceton sits in the Ozark Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bunceton 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 Bunceton's 604 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 Bunceton's 604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bunceton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 604 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 Bunceton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Nearby growing guides