Cainsville, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cainsville, 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 Cainsville 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 Cainsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cainsville — the short answer
Cainsville, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 877 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 877 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 Cainsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cainsville's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cainsville
Each reading below is measured for Cainsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCainsville runs about 206 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
MeasuredCainsville 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 Cainsville is in
Cainsville sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cainsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harrison County.
What Grows in Cainsville
Every plant below cleared Cainsville's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cainsville?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Cainsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cainsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCLAIN`S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- T65N R26W 12CDD1Nitrate · 700 ft
- PETE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- T66N R25W 31CDD1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- T66N R26W 27CBA1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- T65N R27W 12DCA1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- CIRCLE J FEEDERS LLCCAFO · 6.3 mi
- T66N R25W 24ABC1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- JOHNSON'S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- T66N R25W 06ADD1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- W G TRUCKINGBrownfields · 7.6 mi
- MT MORIAH MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cainsville'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 Cainsville.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Cainsville
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cainsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cainsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cainsville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Cainsville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cainsville
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 Cainsville average
Your land is one point inside Cainsville
Everything above resolves to Cainsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 877 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 Cainsville Average
Cainsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cainsville
- ●One soil character for all of Cainsville
- ●Frost dates read at Cainsville's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cainsville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cainsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cainsville, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cainsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cainsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cainsville average
How we know this about Cainsville
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 Cainsville’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 Cainsville
When does frost risk typically end in Cainsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cainsville typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Cainsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cainsville typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cainsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cainsville sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 14, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cainsville?
The federal record around Cainsville is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), 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 Cainsville?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cainsville's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cainsville'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 Cainsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cainsville's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 877 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cainsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cainsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 28 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cainsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cainsville's boundary and the 877 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cainsville's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cainsville's 877 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harrison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harrison 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 Harrison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cainsville's 877 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cainsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 877 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 Cainsville-wide figureread your own land →