Dent County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Dent 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
Dent County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Dent 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 Dent County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dent County — the short answer
Dent County, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 482K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 482K 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 Dent County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dent County's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Dent County
Across a year, Dent County accumulates about 3,813 growing degree days above 50°F, about 60 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 68 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 Dent County
Across Dent County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Clarksville, Nixa, and Lebanon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a very gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.0, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Dent County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Dent County as moderately well drained — but another 52% drains differently: 42% somewhat excessively drained, 7% well drained.
Clarksville is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Nixa (15%) and Lebanon (15%).
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 Dent County
Each reading below is measured for Dent 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 Dent 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 Dent County runs about pH 5.0–6.0, 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
MeasuredDent County runs about 228 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
MeasuredDent County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Dent County is in
Dent County sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Dent County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Dent County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 228-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 Dent County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Dent County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dent County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 283 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle4 documented records
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Dent County
USGS estimates 25,259 lb of 2,4-d on Dent County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,884 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (597 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 Dent County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Dent County — 75 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 Dent 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 Dent County
Closest first, across Dent County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTHWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLPFAS · 0.9 mi
- SALEM PWSPFAS · 0.9 mi
- HEARTLAND METAL FINISHING INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- BUTLER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- OAK HILL R-1 SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BREAK TIME #3077Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- WALNUT BOWL RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SALEM MAIN LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2245Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HOCKER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CRAIG DISTRIBUTING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- DAN'S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dent 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 Dent County.
Total Sites
75
across Dent County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Dent County
Severity Distribution
across Dent County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dent County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites across Dent County. 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 Dent 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 Dent County average
Your land is one point inside Dent County
Everything above resolves to Dent County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 482K 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 Dent County Average
Dent County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dent County
- ●One soil character for all of Dent County
- ●Frost dates read at Dent County's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dent County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Dent County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dent County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dent County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dent County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dent County average
How we know this about Dent 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 Dent County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Dent County
When does frost risk typically end in Dent County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dent County typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Dent County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dent County sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dent County?
The federal record around Dent County shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest PFAS record about 0.9 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 Dent County's scale — its 6b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dent 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 Dent County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Dent County's own scale — its own ~228-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
- Dent County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dent County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Dent CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 75 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Dent County's boundary and the 481,766 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dent County sitting wholly inside the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Dent County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Dent 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 Dent County — the ~228 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 Dent County's 481,766 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 Dent Countyread your own land →