Carrollton, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Carrollton, 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 Carrollton 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 Carrollton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carrollton — the short answer
Carrollton, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- 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
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Carrollton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carrollton's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carrollton
Each reading below is measured for Carrollton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarrollton runs about 217 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
MeasuredCarrollton 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 Carrollton is in
Carrollton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carrollton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Carroll County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Carrollton
Every plant below cleared Carrollton's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carrollton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (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.
What's on the federal record near Carrollton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carrollton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENNY-WISE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- T53N R23W 32ABD1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- CARROLLTON MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 10171Brownfields · 2100 ft
- CHARLIE'S MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- QUIK STOP GROUP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CARROLLTON SCH DIST BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE (FORMER #1319)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1319Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BP PIPELINES CARROLLTON STATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CARROLLTON MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #11311Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carrollton'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 Carrollton.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Carrollton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carrollton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carrollton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carrollton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Carrollton. 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 Carrollton
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 Carrollton average
Your land is one point inside Carrollton
Everything above resolves to Carrollton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Carrollton Average
Carrollton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Carrollton
- ●One soil character for all of Carrollton
- ●Frost dates read at Carrollton's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carrollton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carrollton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carrollton, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carrollton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carrollton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carrollton average
How we know this about Carrollton
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 Carrollton’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 Carrollton
When does frost risk typically end in Carrollton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carrollton typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Carrollton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carrollton 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 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carrollton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carrollton sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 20, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carrollton?
The federal record around Carrollton shows 71 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carrollton?
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 Carrollton's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carrollton'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 Carrollton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carrollton's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,668 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carrollton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carrollton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carrollton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carrollton's boundary and the 2,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Carrollton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carrollton's 2,668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carrollton's 2,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carrollton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Carrollton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriCarrollton sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides