Worth County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Worth County lies within the North Missouri Glaciated Plains (Green Hills) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Worth County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Worth 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 Worth County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Worth County — the short answer
Worth County, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 171K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 171K 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 5b is Worth County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Worth County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Worth County
Across a year, Worth County accumulates about 3,161 growing degree days above 50°F, about 592 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 1 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 Worth County
Across Worth County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Shelby, Gara, and Olmitz are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.6–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Worth County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Worth County as moderately well drained — but another 52% drains differently: 27% somewhat poorly drained, 17% well drained.
Shelby is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Gara (11%) and Olmitz (10%).
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 Worth County
Each reading below is measured for Worth 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 Worth 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 Worth County runs about pH 5.6–6.5, 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
MeasuredWorth County runs about 203 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
MeasuredWorth County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Worth County is in
Worth County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Irregular Plains (92%) and Western Corn Belt Plains (8%). 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 Worth County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Worth County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 203-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 Worth 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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What gets applied to farmland in Worth County
USGS estimates 39,583 lb of Glyphosate on Worth County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (18,784 lb) and Metolachlor-s (15,057 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 Worth County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Worth County — 22 documented sites across 2 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 14 nitrate monitoring sites. Agricultural runoff and septic contamination — tracked at public water utilities (service-area exposure), private wells, and groundwater monitoring sites.
The federal record across Worth County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Worth County
Closest first, across Worth County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SAVILLE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1321Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3074Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WORTH COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT R-IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GRANT CITY MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- T66N R31W 27Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- T66N R31W 27 3Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- T66N R31W 01BBB1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- T66N R30W 27ACB1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- STANDARD SERVICE BILLY G JONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- T66N R30W 27CDD1Nitrate · 8.0 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Worth 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 Worth County.
Severity Distribution
across Worth County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Worth 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 Worth County average
Your land is one point inside Worth County
Everything above resolves to Worth County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 171K 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 Worth County Average
Worth County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Worth County
- ●One soil character for all of Worth County
- ●Frost dates read at Worth County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Worth County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Worth County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Worth County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Worth County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Worth County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Worth County average
How we know this about Worth 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 Worth County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Worth County
When does frost risk typically end in Worth County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Worth County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Worth County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Worth County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Worth County?
The federal record around Worth County is light — 22 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Worth County's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Worth 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 Worth County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Worth County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 22 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Worth County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Worth County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Worth CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 22 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Worth County's boundary and the 170,642 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Worth County spans, Central Irregular Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Worth 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 Worth County — the ~203 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 Worth County's 170,642 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 22 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 Worth Countyread your own land →