Boone County, in 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Boone County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Boone 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 Boone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Boone County — the short answer
Boone County, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 439K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 439K 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 6b is Boone County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boone County's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Boone County
Across a year, Boone County accumulates about 3,803 growing degree days above 50°F, about 50 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 66 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 Boone County
Across Boone County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Keswick, Mexico, and Leonard are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
21%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Boone County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Boone County as moderately well drained — but another 68% drains differently: 29% somewhat poorly drained, 21% poorly drained.
Keswick is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Mexico (10%) and Leonard (8%).
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 Boone County
Each reading below is measured for Boone 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 Boone County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Boone County runs about pH 5.7–6.6, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 21% of Boone County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBoone County runs about 227 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
The kind of country Boone County is in
Boone County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Irregular Plains (59%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (41%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Boone County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Boone County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 227-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 Boone County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Boone County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Boone County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 289 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle18 documented records
- monarch butterfly179 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Boone County
USGS estimates 43,643 lb of Glyphosate on Boone County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (19,750 lb) and Atrazine (18,053 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 Boone County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Boone County — 661 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 25 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Boone County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Boone County
Closest first, across Boone County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETRO MART #48Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- COLUMBIA SAFETY AND SUPPLYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ARKANSAS FREIGHTWAYS, INC (I)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BREAK TIME #3115Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ABF FREIGHT SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CASE POWER & EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- COLUMBIA SIGN SERVICE INC.Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- NEW WORLD RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MFA EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- T49N R13W 36DDD1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- BOONE COUNTY CORRECTIONS FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2070Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boone 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 Boone County.
Total Sites
661
across Boone County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
25 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Severity Distribution
across Boone County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boone County, two things run higher than the national average across Boone County — Nitrate (194 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Boone 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 Boone County average
Your land is one point inside Boone County
Everything above resolves to Boone County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 439K 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 Boone County Average
Boone County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Boone County
- ●One soil character for all of Boone County
- ●Frost dates read at Boone County's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boone County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Boone County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boone County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boone County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boone County average
How we know this about Boone 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 Boone County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Boone County
When does frost risk typically end in Boone County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boone County typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Boone County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boone County sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 26, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boone County?
The federal record around Boone County is a meaningful one — 661 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (298), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Boone County's scale — its 6b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boone 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 Boone County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Boone County's own scale — its own ~227-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 661 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boone County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boone County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Boone CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 661 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Boone County's boundary and the 438,755 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Boone County spans, Central Irregular Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Boone County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Boone 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 Boone County — the ~227 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 Boone County's 438,755 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 661 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 Boone Countyread your own land →