Bunker, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Bunker, 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 Bunker 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 Bunker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bunker — the short answer
Bunker, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 424 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 424 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 Bunker's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bunker's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bunker
Each reading below is measured for Bunker itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBunker runs about 223 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
MeasuredBunker 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 Bunker is in
Bunker sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bunker's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dent County.
What Grows in Bunker
Every plant below cleared Bunker's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bunker?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 5 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Bunker
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bunker. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T32N R03W 24AAA1Nitrate · 250 ft
- BUNKER R-III SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- T32N R03W 24AAA2Nitrate · 400 ft
- FIELD'S STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BUNKER MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOE RUN FLETCHER MINE AND MILLBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- DOE RUN FLETCHER MINE AND MILLToxics Release Inventory · 5.6 mi
- FletcherMining · 5.6 mi
- FLETCHER MINE/MILL - CENTENNIAL DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ST JOE MINERALS CORP - FLETCHER DIVSuperfund · 5.7 mi
- FLETCHER MW10-04Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- FLETCHER MW10-18Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bunker'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 Bunker.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Bunker
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bunker
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bunker
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bunker, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bunker — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (64 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Bunker
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 Bunker average
Your land is one point inside Bunker
Everything above resolves to Bunker as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 424 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 Bunker Average
Bunker Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bunker
- ●One soil character for all of Bunker
- ●Frost dates read at Bunker's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bunker's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bunker
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bunker, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bunker averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bunker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bunker average
How we know this about Bunker
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 Bunker’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 Bunker
When does frost risk typically end in Bunker?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bunker 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 Bunker?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bunker typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bunker?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bunker sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 22, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bunker?
The federal record around Bunker is a meaningful one — 93 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Nitrate 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 Bunker?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bunker's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bunker'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 Bunker’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bunker's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 424 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bunker's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bunker's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 5 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bunker, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bunker's boundary and the 424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bunker's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bunker's 424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dent 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 Dent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bunker's 424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bunker you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Bunker-wide figureread your own land →
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