Atchison County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Atchison County lies within the North Missouri Glaciated Plains (Green Hills) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Atchison County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Atchison County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Atchison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Atchison County — the short answer
Atchison County, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 350K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 350K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5b is Atchison County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atchison County's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Atchison County
Across a year, Atchison County accumulates about 3,259 growing degree days above 50°F, about 494 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 8 of Missouri’s 115 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Atchison County
Across Atchison County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Colo, Contrary, and Ida are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–7.3, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Atchison County
The USDA soil survey maps 56% of Atchison County as well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 23% somewhat poorly drained, 10% poorly drained.
Colo is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Contrary (6%) and Ida (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Atchison County
Each reading below is measured for Atchison County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Atchison County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Atchison County runs about pH 6.1–7.3, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAtchison County runs about 202 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
MeasuredAtchison County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Atchison County is in
Atchison County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Atchison County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Atchison County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 202-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile.
Is it too late to plant in Atchison County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Atchison County
- Japanese beetle4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Atchison County
USGS estimates 311,537 lb of Glyphosate on Atchison County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (150,856 lb) and Atrazine (147,785 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Atchison County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Atchison County — 75 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Atchison County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Atchison County
Closest first, across Atchison County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TORREY PINES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- DAVE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #0041Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- RILEY'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- BAER & SONS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- BENNETTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- HOWELL REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- A5 SOW FARMCAFO · 3.5 mi
- T65N R40W 14DDNitrate · 3.6 mi
- T65N R40W 14DDD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- T65N R40W 13CCC1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- ROCK PORT SCHOOLS - BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Atchison County'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 Atchison County.
Total Sites
75
across Atchison County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Atchison County
Severity Distribution
across Atchison County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atchison County, two things run higher than the national average across Atchison County — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (36 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Atchison County
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 Atchison County average
Your land is one point inside Atchison County
Everything above resolves to Atchison County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 350K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Atchison County Average
Atchison County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Atchison County
- ●One soil character for all of Atchison County
- ●Frost dates read at Atchison County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atchison County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Atchison County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atchison County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atchison County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atchison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atchison County average
How we know this about Atchison County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Atchison County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Atchison County
When does frost risk typically end in Atchison County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atchison County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Atchison County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atchison County sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 11, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atchison County?
The federal record around Atchison County shows 75 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Atchison County's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atchison County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Missouri's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Atchison County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Atchison County's own scale — its own ~202-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 75 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atchison County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Atchison County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Atchison CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 75 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Atchison County's boundary and the 350,262 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Atchison County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Atchison County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Atchison County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Atchison County — the ~202 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atchison County's 350,262 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 75 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Atchison Countyread your own land →