Conception, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Conception, 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 Conception 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 Conception — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Conception — the short answer
Conception, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 480 acres of town.
- 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 480 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 Conception's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Conception's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Conception
Each reading below is measured for Conception itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConception runs about 208 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
MeasuredConception 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 Conception is in
Conception sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Conception's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nodaway County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Conception
Every plant below cleared Conception's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Conception?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 30 — 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 Conception
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Conception. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JERMAIN GROCERY--ROBERT L. PROTZMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- T63N R34W 25BBNitrate · 0.7 mi
- T63N R33W 18CCB1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- T63N R34W 11CDD1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- BEDISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- NODAWAY COUNTY PWSD 1PFAS · 7.0 mi
- MARLIN F. MEYERCAFO · 7.5 mi
- MIDWEST MANUFACTURING COMPANYBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- STANBERRY STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- MILLER'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1143Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Conception'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 Conception.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Conception
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Conception
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Conception
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Conception, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Conception. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Conception
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 Conception average
Your land is one point inside Conception
Everything above resolves to Conception as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 480 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 Conception Average
Conception Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Conception
- ●One soil character for all of Conception
- ●Frost dates read at Conception's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Conception's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Conception
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Conception, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Conception averages can't show:
We read public map data around Conception — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Conception average
How we know this about Conception
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 Conception’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 Conception
When does frost risk typically end in Conception?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Conception 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 Conception?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Conception typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Conception?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Conception sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Conception?
The federal record around Conception shows 37 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Conception?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Conception's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Conception'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 Conception’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Conception's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 480 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Conception's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Conception's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 30 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Conception, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Conception's boundary and the 480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Conception sits in the Central Irregular Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Conception's 480 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nodaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nodaway 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 Nodaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Conception's 480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Conception you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 480 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Conception-wide figureread your own land →