Shannon County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Shannon 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
Shannon County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Shannon 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 Shannon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shannon County — the short answer
Shannon County, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 642K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 642K 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 Shannon County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shannon County's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Shannon County
Across a year, Shannon County accumulates about 3,846 growing degree days above 50°F, about 93 more than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 76 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 Shannon County
Across Shannon County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Scholten, Clarksville, and Coulstone are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat excessively drained with a very gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Somewhat excessively drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Shannon County
The USDA soil survey maps 39% of Shannon County as somewhat excessively drained — but another 61% drains differently: 30% moderately well drained, 27% well drained.
Scholten is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Clarksville (12%) and Coulstone (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 Shannon County
Each reading below is measured for Shannon 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 Shannon County are somewhat excessively drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Shannon County runs about pH 4.8–5.5, 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
MeasuredShannon County runs about 202 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
MeasuredShannon 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 Shannon County is in
Shannon 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 Shannon County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Shannon County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 202-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 Shannon County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Shannon County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Shannon County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 269 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Shannon County
USGS estimates 13,324 lb of 2,4-d on Shannon County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,060 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (372 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 Shannon County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Shannon County — 145 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Shannon 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 Shannon County
Closest first, across Shannon County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EMINENCE MAINT. LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COUNTRY JUNCTION STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SHAWNEE SHOP MAINTENANCE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DIX'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WILLIAMS FAST STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- EMINENCE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- EMINENCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ROWDENS EXPRESS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- TOM'S PACKAGE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- T29N R04W 23CDA1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Casey MineMining · 2.5 mi
- McKinney MineMining · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shannon 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 Shannon County.
Total Sites
145
across Shannon County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Shannon County
Severity Distribution
across Shannon County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shannon County, two things run higher than the national average across Shannon County — Nitrate (90 sites) and Mining (18 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Shannon 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 Shannon County average
Your land is one point inside Shannon County
Everything above resolves to Shannon County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 642K 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 Shannon County Average
Shannon County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Shannon County
- ●One soil character for all of Shannon County
- ●Frost dates read at Shannon County's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shannon County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Shannon County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shannon County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shannon County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shannon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shannon County average
How we know this about Shannon 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 Shannon County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Shannon County
When does frost risk typically end in Shannon County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shannon County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Shannon County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shannon County sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 10, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shannon County?
The federal record around Shannon County is a meaningful one — 145 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Shannon County's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shannon 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 Shannon County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Shannon County's own scale — its own ~202-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 145 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shannon County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shannon County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Shannon CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 145 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Shannon County's boundary and the 642,444 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Shannon County sitting wholly inside the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Shannon County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Shannon 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 Shannon County — the ~202 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 Shannon County's 642,444 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 145 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 Shannon Countyread your own land →