Ralls 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.
Expect cabbage, blueberry, 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
Ralls County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ralls 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 Ralls County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ralls County — the short answer
Ralls County, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 301K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 301K 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 Ralls County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ralls County's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ralls County
Across a year, Ralls County accumulates about 3,573 growing degree days above 50°F, about 180 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 30 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 Ralls County
Across Ralls County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Mexico, Goss, and Winfield are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.8, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
44%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ralls County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Ralls County as poorly drained — but another 56% drains differently: 21% well drained, 18% moderately well drained.
Mexico is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Goss (13%) and Winfield (12%).
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 Ralls County
Each reading below is measured for Ralls 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 Ralls County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group 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 Ralls County runs about pH 6.0–6.8, 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
MeasuredRalls County runs about 220 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
MeasuredRalls 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 Ralls County is in
Ralls County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior River Valleys and Hills (63%) and Central Irregular Plains (37%). 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 Ralls County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ralls County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 220-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 Ralls 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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (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.
What gets applied to farmland in Ralls County
USGS estimates 84,079 lb of Atrazine on Ralls County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (62,419 lb) and Acetochlor (47,401 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 Ralls County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ralls County — 69 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Ralls 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 Ralls County
Closest first, across Ralls County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTER MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- AYERCO #39Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- YESWAY #1130Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- FERTILIZER RETAIL OUTLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- FORMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- LOVES TRAVEL STOP #669Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- ABELS QUIK SHOP #8Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3670Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- CLARENCE CANNONBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- LAKE'S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ralls 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 Ralls County.
Total Sites
69
across Ralls County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Ralls County
Severity Distribution
across Ralls County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ralls County, two things run higher than the national average across Ralls County — CAFO (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ralls 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 Ralls County average
Your land is one point inside Ralls County
Everything above resolves to Ralls County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 301K 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 Ralls County Average
Ralls County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ralls County
- ●One soil character for all of Ralls County
- ●Frost dates read at Ralls County's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ralls County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ralls County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ralls County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ralls County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ralls County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ralls County average
How we know this about Ralls 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 Ralls County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ralls County
When does frost risk typically end in Ralls County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ralls County typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Ralls County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ralls County sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ralls County?
The federal record around Ralls County shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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 Ralls County's scale — its 6a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ralls 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 Ralls County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Ralls County's own scale — its own ~220-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 69 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ralls County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ralls County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ralls CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 69 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ralls County's boundary and the 300,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Ralls County spans, Interior River Valleys and Hills the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ralls 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 Ralls County — the ~220 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 Ralls County's 300,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 69 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 Ralls Countyread your own land →