Livingston County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Livingston County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Livingston 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 Livingston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Livingston County — the short answer
Livingston County, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 341K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 341K 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 Livingston County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Livingston County's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Livingston County
Across a year, Livingston County accumulates about 3,516 growing degree days above 50°F, about 237 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 25 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 Livingston County
Across Livingston County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Greenton, Carlow, and Dockery are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Livingston County
The USDA soil survey maps 64% of Livingston County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 37% drains differently: 19% poorly drained, 12% moderately well drained.
Greenton is the most extensive named soil at 10% 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 Livingston County
Each reading below is measured for Livingston 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 Livingston County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Livingston County runs about pH 5.9–7.0, 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
MeasuredLivingston County runs about 211 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
MeasuredLivingston 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 Livingston County is in
Livingston 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 Livingston County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Livingston County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 211-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 Livingston 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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Livingston County
USGS estimates 151,558 lb of Glyphosate on Livingston County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (57,165 lb) and Metolachlor-s (39,860 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 Livingston County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Livingston County — 112 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Livingston 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 Livingston County
Closest first, across Livingston County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FCS - CHILLICOTHE READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 75 ft
- WAL-MART STORE #135Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GEAR FOR SPORTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GRAND RIVER METALSToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LOWES OF CHILLICOTHE MO #2459Brownfields · 1300 ft
- DEAN MACHINERY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- R.A. SALES COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #3279Brownfields · 1400 ft
- CHILLICOTHE FORD LINCOLN MERCURY INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FARMER'S ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Livingston 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 Livingston County.
Total Sites
112
across Livingston County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Livingston County
Severity Distribution
across Livingston County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Livingston County, two things run higher than the national average across Livingston County — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Nitrate (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Livingston 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 Livingston County average
Your land is one point inside Livingston County
Everything above resolves to Livingston County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 341K 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 Livingston County Average
Livingston County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Livingston County
- ●One soil character for all of Livingston County
- ●Frost dates read at Livingston County's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Livingston County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Livingston County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Livingston County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Livingston County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Livingston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Livingston County average
How we know this about Livingston 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 Livingston County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Livingston County
When does frost risk typically end in Livingston County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston County typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Livingston County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Livingston County sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Livingston County?
The federal record around Livingston County shows 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Livingston County's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Livingston 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 Livingston County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Livingston County's own scale — its own ~211-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 112 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Livingston County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Livingston County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Livingston CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 112 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Livingston County's boundary and the 340,673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Livingston County sitting wholly inside the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Livingston 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 Livingston County — the ~211 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 Livingston County's 340,673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 112 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 Livingston Countyread your own land →