Chilhowee, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chilhowee, 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 Chilhowee 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 Chilhowee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chilhowee — the short answer
Chilhowee, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 231 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 231 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 Chilhowee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chilhowee's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chilhowee
Each reading below is measured for Chilhowee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChilhowee runs about 220 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
MeasuredChilhowee 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 Chilhowee is in
Chilhowee sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chilhowee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnson County.
What Grows in Chilhowee
Every plant below cleared Chilhowee's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chilhowee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 4 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Chilhowee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chilhowee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHEELERS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KARLA'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHILHOWEE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WHITEMAN AFB INDIA-10Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- J.D. HOWERTON AND SONSCAFO · 3.3 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB LIMA-5Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- T44N R27W 17BA 1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB LIMA-7Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MFA OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- T44N R27W 19BCC1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- T45N R27W 26Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB INDIA-11Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chilhowee'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 Chilhowee.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Chilhowee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chilhowee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chilhowee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chilhowee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chilhowee — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Chilhowee
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 Chilhowee average
Your land is one point inside Chilhowee
Everything above resolves to Chilhowee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 231 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 Chilhowee Average
Chilhowee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Chilhowee
- ●One soil character for all of Chilhowee
- ●Frost dates read at Chilhowee's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chilhowee's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chilhowee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chilhowee, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chilhowee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chilhowee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chilhowee average
How we know this about Chilhowee
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 Chilhowee’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 Chilhowee
When does frost risk typically end in Chilhowee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chilhowee 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 Chilhowee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chilhowee typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chilhowee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chilhowee sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 21, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chilhowee?
The federal record around Chilhowee shows 44 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Chilhowee?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chilhowee's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chilhowee'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 Chilhowee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chilhowee's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 231 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chilhowee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chilhowee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 4 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chilhowee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chilhowee's boundary and the 231 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chilhowee's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chilhowee's 231 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chilhowee's 231 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chilhowee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 231 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chilhowee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriChilhowee sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides