Cave, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Cave, 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 Cave 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 Cave — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cave — the short answer
Cave, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 606 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 606 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 Cave's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cave's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cave
Each reading below is measured for Cave itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCave runs about 221 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
MeasuredCave 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 Cave is in
Cave sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cave's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Cave
Every plant below cleared Cave's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cave?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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.
Documented around Cave
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cave checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 243 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cave
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cave. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTMIER SUBDIVISIONPFAS · 2.9 mi
- TROY PWSPFAS · 2.9 mi
- WARREN COUNTY CONCRETE - TROYToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- FINISHMASTER INCBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- VICTORY LANE FUEL & FOOD 2 LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CASTLE GROCERY & CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- MAGRUDER LIMESTONE CO INC-TROY QUARRYToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- G & M CONCRETE AND ASPHALT CO INC-TROY PLANTBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- PHIL BECK MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #60Brownfields · 4.1 mi
- LINCOLN COUNTY R-III SCHOOL DISTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WITTE BROS EXCHANGE INCBrownfields · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cave'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 Cave.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cave
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cave
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cave, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Cave. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cave
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 Cave average
Your land is one point inside Cave
Everything above resolves to Cave as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 606 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 town 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 Cave Average
Cave Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cave
- ●One soil character for all of Cave
- ●Frost dates read at Cave's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cave's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cave
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cave, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cave averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cave — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cave average
How we know this about Cave
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cave’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Cave
When does frost risk typically end in Cave?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cave typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cave?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cave 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 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cave?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cave sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cave?
The federal record around Cave is a meaningful one — 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest PFAS record about 2.9 miles 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 Cave?
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 Cave's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cave'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 Cave’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cave's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 606 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cave's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cave's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cave, the closest PFAS record about 2.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cave's boundary and the 606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cave's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cave 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 Cave's 606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cave's 606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cave you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 2.9 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 Cave-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriCave sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides