Coffey, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Coffey, 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 Coffey 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 Coffey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coffey — the short answer
Coffey, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 133 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 133 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 6a is Coffey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coffey's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coffey
Each reading below is measured for Coffey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoffey runs about 209 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
MeasuredCoffey sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Coffey is in
Coffey sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Coffey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Daviess County.
What Grows in Coffey
Every plant below cleared Coffey's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coffey?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Coffey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coffey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T61N R28W 01CCC1Nitrate · 600 ft
- T61N R28W 12BCB1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- COFFEY MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SMITHFIELD HOG, CYPRESS CREEK FARMCAFO · 2.6 mi
- T61N R28W 22AAC1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- PREMIUM STANDARD FARMS-COFFEY FEEDMILLCAFO · 3.1 mi
- PREMIUM STANDARD FARMS-COFFEY FEEDMILLToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
- SMITHFIELD, HICKORY CREEK FARMCAFO · 3.2 mi
- T61N R27W 29BAA 16271Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- T62N R27W 19AAC1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- T62N R29W 25DDD1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- T60N R27W 18BBB1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coffey'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 Coffey.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Coffey
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coffey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coffey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coffey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coffey — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (20 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 Coffey
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 Coffey average
Your land is one point inside Coffey
Everything above resolves to Coffey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 133 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 Coffey Average
Coffey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Coffey
- ●One soil character for all of Coffey
- ●Frost dates read at Coffey's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coffey's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coffey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coffey, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coffey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coffey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coffey average
How we know this about Coffey
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 Coffey’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 Coffey
When does frost risk typically end in Coffey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coffey typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Coffey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coffey typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coffey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coffey sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coffey?
The federal record around Coffey shows 32 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Coffey?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coffey's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coffey'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 Coffey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coffey's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 133 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coffey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coffey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coffey, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coffey's boundary and the 133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coffey's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coffey's 133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Daviess 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 Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coffey's 133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coffey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 133 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Coffey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriCoffey sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides