Dexter, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dexter, 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 Dexter 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 Dexter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dexter — the short answer
Dexter, Missouri: USDA zone 7b, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 7b is Dexter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dexter's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dexter
Each reading below is measured for Dexter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDexter runs about 250 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
MeasuredDexter sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Dexter is in
Dexter sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dexter's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Stoddard County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dexter
Every plant below cleared Dexter's own zone 7b and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dexter?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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.
Documented around Dexter
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dexter checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 187 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dexter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dexter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 2388Brownfields · 350 ft
- STARS & STRIPES DOWNTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CORLIES STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CLEOS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TYSON CHICKEN INC DEXTER WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- DEXTER SCHOOL DISTRICT R-XIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FIRST STATE BANK OF DEXTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HUBER'S SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SS 5212Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GISI AMOCO SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MFA OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHRISMAN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dexter'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 Dexter.
Total Sites
134
within ~10 miles of Dexter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dexter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dexter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dexter, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dexter — CAFO (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dexter
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 Dexter average
Your land is one point inside Dexter
Everything above resolves to Dexter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Dexter Average
Dexter Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dexter
- ●One soil character for all of Dexter
- ●Frost dates read at Dexter's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dexter's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dexter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dexter, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dexter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dexter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dexter average
How we know this about Dexter
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 Dexter’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 Dexter
When does frost risk typically end in Dexter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dexter typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Dexter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dexter typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dexter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dexter sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 7, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dexter?
The federal record around Dexter shows 134 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dexter?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dexter's scale — its 7b band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dexter'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 Dexter’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dexter's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,613 acres it covers and 134 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dexter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dexter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 21 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 134 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dexter, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dexter's boundary and the 4,613 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dexter sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dexter checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dexter's 4,613 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stoddard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stoddard 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 Stoddard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dexter's 4,613 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dexter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,613 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dexter-wide figureread your own land →
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