Chariton County, in 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Chariton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Chariton 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 Chariton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chariton County — the short answer
Chariton County, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 481K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 481K 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 6a is Chariton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chariton County's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Chariton County
Across a year, Chariton County accumulates about 3,574 growing degree days above 50°F, about 179 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 31 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 Chariton County
Across Chariton County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Armstrong, Carlow, and Dockery are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.8, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Chariton County
The USDA soil survey maps 64% of Chariton County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 36% drains differently: 14% poorly drained, 8% well drained.
Armstrong is the most extensive named soil at 23% of mapped acres, then Carlow (9%) and Dockery (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 Chariton County
Each reading below is measured for Chariton 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 Chariton County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Chariton County runs about pH 6.2–6.8, 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
MeasuredChariton County runs about 213 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
MeasuredChariton County 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 Chariton County is in
Chariton County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Irregular Plains (78%) and Western Corn Belt Plains (22%). 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 Chariton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Chariton County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 213-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 Chariton County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
Documented around Chariton County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Chariton County
USGS estimates 236,281 lb of Glyphosate on Chariton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (94,480 lb) and Atrazine (79,939 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 Chariton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Chariton County — 113 documented sites across 6 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.
The federal record across Chariton 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 Chariton County
Closest first, across Chariton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 3-D PIG COCAFO · 1.9 mi
- ERNEST BENTLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- INDIAN GROVE FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- BYNUMVILLE REPEATER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- JD WRIGHTCAFO · 4.8 mi
- KEYTESVILLE R-III PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- T53N R18W 05AAD1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- KEYTESVILLE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- DREWS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- T53N R18W 05ACA1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1558Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- T53N R18W 05ADA1Nitrate · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chariton 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 Chariton County.
Total Sites
113
across Chariton County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Chariton County
Severity Distribution
across Chariton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chariton County, two things run higher than the national average across Chariton County — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (52 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 Chariton 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 Chariton County average
Your land is one point inside Chariton County
Everything above resolves to Chariton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 481K 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 Chariton County Average
Chariton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chariton County
- ●One soil character for all of Chariton County
- ●Frost dates read at Chariton County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chariton County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Chariton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chariton County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chariton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chariton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chariton County average
How we know this about Chariton 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 Chariton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Chariton County
When does frost risk typically end in Chariton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chariton County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Chariton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chariton County sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 18, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chariton County?
The federal record around Chariton County shows 113 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest CAFO record about 1.9 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 Chariton County's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chariton 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 Chariton County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Chariton County's own scale — its own ~213-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 113 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chariton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chariton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Chariton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 113 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest CAFO record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Chariton County's boundary and the 480,753 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Chariton County spans, Central Irregular Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Chariton County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Chariton 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 Chariton County — the ~213 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 Chariton County's 480,753 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 113 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 Chariton Countyread your own land →