Moniteau County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Moniteau County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Moniteau 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 Moniteau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moniteau County — the short answer
Moniteau County, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 266K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 266K 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 Moniteau County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moniteau County's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Moniteau County
Across a year, Moniteau County accumulates about 3,789 growing degree days above 50°F, about 36 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 63 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 Moniteau County
Across Moniteau County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Wrengart, Maplewood, and Ocie are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
10%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Moniteau County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Moniteau County as moderately well drained — but another 48% drains differently: 21% somewhat poorly drained, 15% well drained.
Wrengart is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Maplewood (17%) and Ocie (9%).
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 Moniteau County
Each reading below is measured for Moniteau 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 Moniteau County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Moniteau County runs about pH 5.7–7.0, 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
MeasuredMoniteau County runs about 221 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
MeasuredMoniteau 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 Moniteau County is in
Moniteau County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior River Valleys and Hills (62%) and Ozark Highlands (39%). 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 Moniteau County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Moniteau County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 221-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 Moniteau County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Moniteau County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Moniteau County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 317 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Moniteau County
USGS estimates 29,169 lb of Glyphosate on Moniteau County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (12,468 lb) and Atrazine (12,360 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 Moniteau County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Moniteau County — 174 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Moniteau County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Moniteau County
Closest first, across Moniteau County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPIELER'S INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 5KS CONVENIENCE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 4054Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CALIFORNIA MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- M-50 CALIFORNIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- R-1 BUS MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- T45N R15W 28ABC1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- K. A. DUTCHER PAINT & VARNISH COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- T45N R15W 22ADB1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- BREAK TIME #3008Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moniteau 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 Moniteau County.
Total Sites
174
across Moniteau County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Moniteau County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moniteau County, two things run higher than the national average across Moniteau County — Mining (71 sites) and CAFO (10 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Moniteau 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 Moniteau County average
Your land is one point inside Moniteau County
Everything above resolves to Moniteau County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 266K 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 Moniteau County Average
Moniteau County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Moniteau County
- ●One soil character for all of Moniteau County
- ●Frost dates read at Moniteau County's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moniteau County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Moniteau County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moniteau County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moniteau County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moniteau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moniteau County average
How we know this about Moniteau 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 Moniteau County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Moniteau County
When does frost risk typically end in Moniteau County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moniteau County typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Moniteau County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moniteau County sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moniteau County?
The federal record around Moniteau County runs heavier than most — 174 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Moniteau County's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moniteau 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 Moniteau County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Moniteau County's own scale — its own ~221-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 174 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moniteau County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moniteau County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Moniteau CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 174 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Moniteau County's boundary and the 265,621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Moniteau County spans, Interior River Valleys and Hills the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Moniteau County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Moniteau 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 Moniteau County — the ~221 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 Moniteau County's 265,621 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 174 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 Moniteau Countyread your own land →