Crane, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crane, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crane lot. 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 Crane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crane — the short answer
Crane, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Crane's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crane's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crane
Each reading below is measured for Crane itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrane runs about 218 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
MeasuredCrane 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 Crane is in
Crane sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crane's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stone County.
What Grows in Crane
Every plant below cleared Crane's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crane?
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 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 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Crane
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crane. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMMERCE PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CITY OF CRANE PUBLIC UTILITIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BELMONT CASKET COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JOY JOHNSON (JOHNSON'S TEXACO SER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- V-MAR REAL ESTATE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- T25N R24W 04BBD1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- HIGHWAY 13 TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CRANE R-3 SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RAPID ROBERT S #101Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BILL'S MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- T26N R24W 33CDB1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- T26N R24W 33CBC1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crane'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 Crane.
Total Sites
326
within ~10 miles of Crane
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crane
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crane
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crane, Mining runs higher than the national average — 236 sites within ~10 miles of Crane. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Crane
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 Crane average
Your land is one point inside Crane
Everything above resolves to Crane as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crane Average
Crane Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Crane
- ●One soil character for all of Crane
- ●Frost dates read at Crane's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crane's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crane
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crane, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crane averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crane average
How we know this about Crane
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crane’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crane
When does frost risk typically end in Crane?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crane 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.
When is the first frost in Crane?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crane typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crane?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crane sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crane?
The federal record around Crane runs heavier than most — 326 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (236), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crane?
From about Oct 5 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crane's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crane's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crane’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crane's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,083 acres it covers and 326 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crane's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crane's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 326 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crane, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crane's boundary and the 1,083 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crane's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crane's 1,083 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stone County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Stone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crane's 1,083 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crane you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,083 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crane-wide figureread your own land →
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