Cedar County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Cedar County lies within the Ozarks — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cedar County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cedar 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 Cedar County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cedar County — the short answer
Cedar County, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 304K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 304K 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 7a is Cedar County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar County's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cedar County
Across a year, Cedar County accumulates about 3,962 growing degree days above 50°F, about 209 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 95 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 Cedar County
Across Cedar County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Cliquot, Goss, and Sylvania are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.4–6.0, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cedar County
The USDA soil survey maps 47% of Cedar County as moderately well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 44% well drained, 5% subaqueous.
Cliquot is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Goss (13%) and Sylvania (7%).
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 Cedar County
Each reading below is measured for Cedar 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 Cedar County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Cedar County runs about pH 5.4–6.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCedar County runs about 226 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
MeasuredCedar County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Cedar County is in
Cedar County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Ozark Highlands (72%) and Central Irregular Plains (28%). 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 Cedar County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cedar County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 226-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 Cedar County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Cedar County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cedar County
USGS estimates 14,700 lb of Glyphosate on Cedar County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (13,879 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (5,541 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 Cedar County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cedar County — 83 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Cedar 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 Cedar County
Closest first, across Cedar County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARTON DADE CEDAR JASP COUNTYCONS PWSD 1PFAS · 2.2 mi
- JOHNSON STOCK FARMCAFO · 2.8 mi
- CEDAR COUNTY ROAD & BRIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- M-51 STOCKTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- STOCKTON MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CEDAR COUNTY BARNBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB HOTEL-6Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- HAMMONS PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- CORNERSTONE GALLERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- STOCKTON MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- STOCKTON FINA #51Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- RICHARD'S 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar 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 Cedar County.
Total Sites
83
across Cedar County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Severity Distribution
across Cedar County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedar County, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites across Cedar County. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar 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 Cedar County average
Your land is one point inside Cedar County
Everything above resolves to Cedar County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 304K 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 Cedar County Average
Cedar County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cedar County
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar County
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar County's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cedar County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar County average
How we know this about Cedar 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 Cedar County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cedar County
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar 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 Cedar County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar County sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 25, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar County?
The federal record around Cedar County is a meaningful one — 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest PFAS record about 2.2 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 Cedar County's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar 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 Cedar County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cedar County's own scale — its own ~226-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 83 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedar County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cedar CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 83 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cedar County's boundary and the 303,660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Cedar County spans, Ozark Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cedar County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cedar 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 Cedar County — the ~226 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 Cedar County's 303,660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 83 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 Cedar Countyread your own land →