Harrison County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Harrison 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
Harrison County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Harrison 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 Harrison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harrison County — the short answer
Harrison County, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 462K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 462K 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 Harrison County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harrison County's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Harrison County
Across a year, Harrison County accumulates about 3,215 growing degree days above 50°F, about 538 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 6 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 Harrison County
Across Harrison County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Gara, Shelby, and Grundy are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Harrison County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Harrison County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 58% drains differently: 29% well drained, 16% poorly drained.
Gara is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Shelby (12%) and Grundy (10%).
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 Harrison County
Each reading below is measured for Harrison 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 Harrison County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Harrison County runs about pH 6.1–6.7, 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
MeasuredHarrison County runs about 208 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
MeasuredHarrison 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 Harrison County is in
Harrison County sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Harrison County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Harrison County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 208-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 Harrison 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 Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Harrison County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Harrison County
USGS estimates 170,961 lb of Glyphosate on Harrison County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (81,679 lb) and Atrazine (67,919 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 Harrison County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Harrison County — 81 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 Harrison 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 Harrison County
Closest first, across Harrison County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BENTWOOD - DRY PONDCAFO · 2.1 mi
- RIDGEWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- LARRY'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- T64N R27W 03BBD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- T63N R27W 06ABB1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- NAPCO - NORTH BETHANY QUARRYToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- FCS - BETHANY READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- TRAILWAY VETERINARY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- LAMBERT CO HEADWEAR DIVBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY LP RIDGEWAY STATIONBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- HILLCREST U-HAULUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3081Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harrison 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 Harrison County.
Total Sites
81
across Harrison County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Harrison County
Severity Distribution
across Harrison County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harrison County, two things run higher than the national average across Harrison County — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (32 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 Harrison 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 Harrison County average
Your land is one point inside Harrison County
Everything above resolves to Harrison County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 462K 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 Harrison County Average
Harrison County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Harrison County
- ●One soil character for all of Harrison County
- ●Frost dates read at Harrison County's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harrison County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Harrison County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harrison County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harrison County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harrison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harrison County average
How we know this about Harrison 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 Harrison County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Harrison County
When does frost risk typically end in Harrison County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harrison County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Harrison County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harrison County sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harrison County?
The federal record around Harrison County shows 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest CAFO record about 2.1 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 Harrison County's scale — its 5b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harrison 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 Harrison County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Harrison County's own scale — its own ~208-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 81 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harrison County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harrison County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Harrison CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 81 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest CAFO record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Harrison County's boundary and the 462,410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Harrison County sitting wholly inside the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Harrison County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Harrison 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 Harrison County — the ~208 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 Harrison County's 462,410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 81 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 Harrison Countyread your own land →