Laclede County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Laclede 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
Laclede County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Laclede 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 Laclede County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Laclede County — the short answer
Laclede County, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 489K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 489K 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 Laclede County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laclede County's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Laclede County
Across a year, Laclede County accumulates about 3,827 growing degree days above 50°F, about 74 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 70 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 Laclede County
Across Laclede County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Wilderness, Clarksville, and Viraton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.4–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Laclede County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Laclede County as moderately well drained — but another 48% drains differently: 27% well drained, 19% somewhat excessively drained.
Wilderness is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Clarksville (18%) and Viraton (13%).
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 Laclede County
Each reading below is measured for Laclede 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 Laclede County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Laclede County runs about pH 5.4–6.3, 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
MeasuredLaclede 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLaclede 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 Laclede County is in
Laclede 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 Laclede County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Laclede County's own USDA zone 7a 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 Laclede 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 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 8 — 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 Laclede County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Laclede County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 342 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Laclede County
USGS estimates 7,478 lb of 2,4-d on Laclede County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (6,584 lb) and Triclopyr (2,217 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 Laclede County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Laclede County — 207 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Laclede 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 Laclede County
Closest first, across Laclede County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T34N R15W 17ABDNitrate · 0.5 mi
- MARINE ELECTRICAL PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- BOBCAT TRAILER INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- JAMES TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- EAST GATE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PRATER COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- FULL THROTTLE PAINT AND BODYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- TRACKER PLASTICSToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- FORMER PIT STOP/JACKET STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MARINE ELECTRICAL PRODUCTToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- MARINE ELECTRICAL PRODUCTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- EMERSON CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laclede 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 Laclede County.
Total Sites
207
across Laclede County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Laclede County
Severity Distribution
across Laclede County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Laclede County, two things run higher than the national average across Laclede County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Laclede 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 Laclede County average
Your land is one point inside Laclede County
Everything above resolves to Laclede County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 489K 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 Laclede County Average
Laclede County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Laclede County
- ●One soil character for all of Laclede County
- ●Frost dates read at Laclede County's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laclede County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Laclede County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laclede County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laclede County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laclede County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laclede County average
How we know this about Laclede 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 Laclede County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Laclede County
When does frost risk typically end in Laclede County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laclede 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 Laclede County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laclede County sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laclede County?
The federal record around Laclede County is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Laclede County's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laclede 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 Laclede County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Laclede County's own scale — its own ~227-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 207 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laclede County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Laclede 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 Laclede CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 207 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Laclede County's boundary and the 489,397 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Laclede County sitting wholly inside the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Laclede County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Laclede 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 Laclede 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 Laclede County's 489,397 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 207 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 Laclede Countyread your own land →