Chain of Rocks, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chain of Rocks, 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 Chain of Rocks 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 Chain of Rocks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chain of Rocks — the short answer
Chain of Rocks, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 118 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 118 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 Chain of Rocks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chain of Rocks's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chain of Rocks
Each reading below is measured for Chain of Rocks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChain of Rocks runs about 225 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
MeasuredChain of Rocks 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 Chain of Rocks is in
Chain of Rocks sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chain of Rocks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Chain of Rocks
Every plant below cleared Chain of Rocks's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chain of Rocks?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
Documented around Chain of Rocks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chain of Rocks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 242 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chain of Rocks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chain of Rocks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LINCOLN CO 161 (MCHI)Nitrate · 450 ft
- VACANT BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FASTLANE OLD MONROEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SCHADER MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GALLOWAY EQUIPMENT COMPANY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MID-WESTERN VETERINARY SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CROWN SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ROBERT E. PHELPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- OLD MONROE 66Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- OLD MONROE ELEV & SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- T48N R02ENitrate · 3.6 mi
- T48N R02E 12BBD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chain of Rocks'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 Chain of Rocks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chain of Rocks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chain of Rocks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chain of Rocks, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Chain of Rocks. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Chain of Rocks
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 Chain of Rocks average
Your land is one point inside Chain of Rocks
Everything above resolves to Chain of Rocks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 118 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 Chain of Rocks Average
Chain of Rocks Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Chain of Rocks
- ●One soil character for all of Chain of Rocks
- ●Frost dates read at Chain of Rocks's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chain of Rocks's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chain of Rocks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chain of Rocks, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chain of Rocks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chain of Rocks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chain of Rocks average
How we know this about Chain of Rocks
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 Chain of Rocks’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 Chain of Rocks
When does frost risk typically end in Chain of Rocks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chain of Rocks typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Chain of Rocks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chain of Rocks typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chain of Rocks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chain of Rocks sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 23, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chain of Rocks?
The federal record around Chain of Rocks is a meaningful one — 323 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), 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 Chain of Rocks?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chain of Rocks's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chain of Rocks'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 Chain of Rocks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chain of Rocks's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 118 acres it covers and 323 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chain of Rocks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chain of Rocks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 6 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 323 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chain of Rocks, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chain of Rocks's boundary and the 118 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chain of Rocks's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chain of Rocks 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 Chain of Rocks's 118 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 Chain of Rocks's 118 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chain of Rocks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 118 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 Chain of Rocks-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriChain of Rocks sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides