Dutchtown, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dutchtown, 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 Dutchtown 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 Dutchtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dutchtown — the short answer
Dutchtown, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7a is Dutchtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dutchtown's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dutchtown
Each reading below is measured for Dutchtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDutchtown runs about 231 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
MeasuredDutchtown sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Dutchtown is in
Dutchtown sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dutchtown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cape Girardeau County.
What Grows in Dutchtown
Every plant below cleared Dutchtown's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dutchtown?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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's on the federal record near Dutchtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dutchtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QC LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- QC LLCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- HUBBLE CREEK ARSENIC WELLSuperfund · 2.7 mi
- MARY CONSTRUCTION CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- RAM POWER ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- BIOKYOWAToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ADMIRAL SIGNSBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- GENERAL SIGN COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- POLYONE-SPECIALTY COMPOUNDSToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- NORTH AMERICAN TIE & TIMBER LLCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- FOAMEX L P -FOAMEX L PToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dutchtown'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 Dutchtown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dutchtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dutchtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dutchtown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dutchtown — Underground Storage Tanks (272 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (27 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dutchtown
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 Dutchtown average
Your land is one point inside Dutchtown
Everything above resolves to Dutchtown 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 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 Dutchtown Average
Dutchtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Dutchtown
- ●One soil character for all of Dutchtown
- ●Frost dates read at Dutchtown's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dutchtown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dutchtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dutchtown, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dutchtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dutchtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dutchtown average
How we know this about Dutchtown
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 Dutchtown’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 Dutchtown
When does frost risk typically end in Dutchtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dutchtown typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Dutchtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dutchtown typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dutchtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dutchtown sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 25, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dutchtown?
The federal record around Dutchtown is a meaningful one — 437 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (272), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.6 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 Dutchtown?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dutchtown's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dutchtown'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 Dutchtown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dutchtown's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,139 acres it covers and 437 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dutchtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dutchtown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 8 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 437 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dutchtown, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dutchtown's boundary and the 1,139 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dutchtown's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dutchtown's 1,139 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cape Girardeau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cape Girardeau 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 Cape Girardeau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dutchtown's 1,139 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dutchtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,139 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.6 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 Dutchtown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriDutchtown sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides