Chaffee, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chaffee, 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 Chaffee 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 Chaffee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chaffee — the short answer
Chaffee, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7a is Chaffee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chaffee's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chaffee
Each reading below is measured for Chaffee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChaffee runs about 234 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
MeasuredChaffee sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Chaffee is in
Chaffee sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chaffee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Scott County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chaffee
Every plant below cleared Chaffee's own zone 7a and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chaffee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Chaffee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chaffee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHAFFEE R 2 SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- LEE'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SCOTT COUNTY R-2 SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHAFFEE SCHOOL DIST R-2Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RICHARD MITCHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 10528Brownfields · 1400 ft
- HEARTLAND LABORATORYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- RHODES 101 STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DENNIS BESS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DUNCAN PAINTING & WALL COVERINGBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CITY OF CHAFFEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- T29N R13E 18ABDNitrate · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chaffee'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 Chaffee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chaffee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chaffee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chaffee, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Chaffee. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Chaffee
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 Chaffee average
Your land is one point inside Chaffee
Everything above resolves to Chaffee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Chaffee Average
Chaffee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chaffee
- ●One soil character for all of Chaffee
- ●Frost dates read at Chaffee's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chaffee's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chaffee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chaffee, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chaffee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chaffee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chaffee average
How we know this about Chaffee
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 Chaffee’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 Chaffee
When does frost risk typically end in Chaffee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chaffee typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Chaffee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chaffee typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chaffee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chaffee sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 26, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chaffee?
The federal record around Chaffee is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Chaffee?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chaffee's scale — its 7a band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chaffee'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 Chaffee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chaffee's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,149 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chaffee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chaffee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 9 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chaffee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chaffee's boundary and the 1,149 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chaffee sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chaffee's 1,149 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chaffee's 1,149 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chaffee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,149 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Chaffee-wide figureread your own land →