Champ, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Champ, 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 Champ 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 Champ — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Champ — the short answer
Champ, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 512 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 512 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 Champ's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Champ's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Champ
Each reading below is measured for Champ itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChamp 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
MeasuredChamp 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 Champ is in
Champ sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Champ's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Champ
Every plant below cleared Champ'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 Champ?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Champ
Survey cells within 31 miles of Champ checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 241 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Champ
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Champ. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IESI MO CHAMPS LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- AMEREN MISSOURI MARYLAND HEIGHTS RENEWABLE ENERGY CENTERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CHAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FRED WEBER - NORTH STONEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FRED WEBER INC - NORTH QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EDWARD B. ANDERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #22506Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SWEENY SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7 ELEVEN # 22506Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- FRED WEBER - CONCRETE PLANT 4Toxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- FRED WEBER - CONCRETE PLANT 4Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CANTRELL AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Champ'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 Champ.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Champ
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Champ
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Champ, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 151 sites within ~10 miles of Champ. 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 Champ
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 Champ average
Your land is one point inside Champ
Everything above resolves to Champ as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 512 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 Champ Average
Champ Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Champ
- ●One soil character for all of Champ
- ●Frost dates read at Champ's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Champ's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Champ
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Champ, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Champ averages can't show:
We read public map data around Champ — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Champ average
How we know this about Champ
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 Champ’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 Champ
When does frost risk typically end in Champ?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Champ typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Champ?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Champ typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Champ?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Champ sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 30, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Champ?
The federal record around Champ is a meaningful one — 2,306 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,273), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Champ?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Champ's scale — its 7a band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Champ'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 Champ’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Champ's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 512 acres it covers and 2,306 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Champ's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Champ's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 13 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,306 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Champ, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Champ's boundary and the 512 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Champ's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Champ 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 Champ's 512 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis 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 St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Champ's 512 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Champ you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 512 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Champ-wide figureread your own land →
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