Reynolds County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Reynolds 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
Reynolds County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Reynolds 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 Reynolds County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Reynolds County — the short answer
Reynolds County, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 517K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 517K 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 Reynolds County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reynolds County's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Reynolds County
Across a year, Reynolds County accumulates about 3,770 growing degree days above 50°F, about 17 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 59 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 Reynolds County
Across Reynolds County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Clarksville, Scholten, and Alred are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.4, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Reynolds County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Reynolds County as well drained — but another 56% drains differently: 35% somewhat excessively drained, 14% moderately well drained.
Clarksville is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Scholten (15%) and Alred (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 Reynolds County
Each reading below is measured for Reynolds 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 Reynolds County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Reynolds County runs about pH 4.8–5.4, 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
MeasuredReynolds County runs about 216 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
MeasuredReynolds 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 Reynolds County is in
Reynolds 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 Reynolds County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Reynolds County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 216-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 Reynolds 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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Reynolds County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Reynolds County
USGS estimates 6,484 lb of 2,4-d on Reynolds County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (295 lb) and Triclopyr (65 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 Reynolds County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Reynolds County — 132 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Reynolds 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 Reynolds County
Closest first, across Reynolds County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KOCHS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COOK LUMBERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- JIM FOX PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JESS VOLNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- CENTERVILLE R-1 SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- VIBURNUM TREND LEAD HAUL ROADSSuperfund · 4.8 mi
- FOXS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- T32N R01E 29DAB1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- MISSOURI HARDWOOD CHARCOALToxics Release Inventory · 6.0 mi
- well OZ-18Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- SAFARI CAMP GROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- THE OK GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reynolds 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 Reynolds County.
Total Sites
132
across Reynolds County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Reynolds County
Severity Distribution
across Reynolds County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reynolds County, two things run higher than the national average across Reynolds County — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (78 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Reynolds 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 Reynolds County average
Your land is one point inside Reynolds County
Everything above resolves to Reynolds County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 517K 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 Reynolds County Average
Reynolds County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Reynolds County
- ●One soil character for all of Reynolds County
- ●Frost dates read at Reynolds County's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reynolds County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Reynolds County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reynolds County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reynolds County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reynolds County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reynolds County average
How we know this about Reynolds 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 Reynolds County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Reynolds County
When does frost risk typically end in Reynolds County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reynolds County typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Reynolds County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reynolds County sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 19, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reynolds County?
The federal record around Reynolds County is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Reynolds County's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reynolds 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 Reynolds County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Reynolds County's own scale — its own ~216-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 132 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reynolds County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reynolds County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Reynolds CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 132 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Reynolds County's boundary and the 517,425 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Reynolds County sitting wholly inside the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Reynolds County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Reynolds 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 Reynolds County — the ~216 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 Reynolds County's 517,425 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 132 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 Reynolds Countyread your own land →