Doolittle, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Doolittle, 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 Doolittle 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 Doolittle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Doolittle — the short answer
Doolittle, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- 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)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Doolittle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Doolittle's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Doolittle
Each reading below is measured for Doolittle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDoolittle runs about 207 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
MeasuredDoolittle 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 Doolittle is in
Doolittle sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Doolittle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phelps County.
What Grows in Doolittle
Every plant below cleared Doolittle's own zone 6b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Doolittle?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Oct 25 — 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 Doolittle
Survey cells within 31 miles of Doolittle checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 312 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Doolittle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Doolittle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESTATE OF HENRY HICKMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- OZARK OIL CO LLC BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MALONE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- T37N R09W 11DAC1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- T37N R09W 10ACA2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- T37N R09W 10ACA1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- UnkMining · 1.1 mi
- T37N R09W 15DDB1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NEWBURG R-II SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- T37N R09W 22 1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- T37N R09W 08DBB1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Doolittle'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 Doolittle.
Total Sites
197
within ~10 miles of Doolittle
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Doolittle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Doolittle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Doolittle, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Doolittle. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Doolittle
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 Doolittle average
Your land is one point inside Doolittle
Everything above resolves to Doolittle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Doolittle Average
Doolittle Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Doolittle
- ●One soil character for all of Doolittle
- ●Frost dates read at Doolittle's scale: Apr 1 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Doolittle's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Doolittle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Doolittle, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Doolittle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Doolittle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Doolittle average
How we know this about Doolittle
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 Doolittle’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 Doolittle
When does frost risk typically end in Doolittle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Doolittle 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 Doolittle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Doolittle typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Doolittle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Doolittle sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 11, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Doolittle?
The federal record around Doolittle is a meaningful one — 197 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Doolittle?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Doolittle's scale — its 6b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Doolittle'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 Doolittle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Doolittle's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,782 acres it covers and 197 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Doolittle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Doolittle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Oct 25 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 197 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Doolittle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Doolittle's boundary and the 1,782 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Doolittle's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Doolittle 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 Doolittle's 1,782 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phelps County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phelps 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 Phelps County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Doolittle's 1,782 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Doolittle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,782 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 Doolittle-wide figureread your own land →
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