De Kalb, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in De Kalb, 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 De Kalb 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 De Kalb — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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De Kalb — the short answer
De Kalb, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 163 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 De Kalb's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against De Kalb's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in De Kalb
Each reading below is measured for De Kalb itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDe Kalb runs about 217 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
MeasuredDe Kalb 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 De Kalb is in
De Kalb sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at De Kalb's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buchanan County.
What Grows in De Kalb
Every plant below cleared De Kalb's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in De Kalb?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near De Kalb
Closest first, within ~10 miles of De Kalb. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCHANAN COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPT DIST 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- T56N R36W 32BBB1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- RUSHVILLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- MID AMERICA FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- RUSHVILLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- T56N R36W 29DDC1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- T56N R36W 11CCD1Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- T56N R37W 26CBB1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- MID-BUCHANAN R-5 SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- FAUCETT MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- T55N R37W 27BBD1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- GRIFFIN'S MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from De Kalb'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 De Kalb.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of De Kalb
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of De Kalb
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of De Kalb
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around De Kalb, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of De Kalb. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in De Kalb
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 De Kalb average
Your land is one point inside De Kalb
Everything above resolves to De Kalb as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 town 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 De Kalb Average
De Kalb Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across De Kalb
- ●One soil character for all of De Kalb
- ●Frost dates read at De Kalb's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not De Kalb's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in De Kalb
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in De Kalb, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that De Kalb averages can't show:
We read public map data around De Kalb — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the De Kalb average
How we know this about De Kalb
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at De Kalb’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 De Kalb
When does frost risk typically end in De Kalb?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in De Kalb typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in De Kalb?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in De Kalb 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 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in De Kalb?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, De Kalb sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in De Kalb?
The federal record around De Kalb is a meaningful one — 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in De Kalb?
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 De Kalb's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of De Kalb'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 De Kalb’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at De Kalb's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- De Kalb's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- De Kalb's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near De Kalb, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- De Kalb's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at De Kalb's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so De Kalb's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buchanan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buchanan 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 Buchanan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among De Kalb's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of De Kalb you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 De Kalb-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriDe Kalb sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides