Ellsinore, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ellsinore, 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 Ellsinore 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 Ellsinore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ellsinore — the short answer
Ellsinore, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 324 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- 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
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 324 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 Ellsinore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellsinore's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellsinore
Each reading below is measured for Ellsinore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllsinore runs about 219 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
MeasuredEllsinore 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 Ellsinore is in
Ellsinore sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ellsinore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carter County.
What Grows in Ellsinore
Every plant below cleared Ellsinore's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellsinore?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (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.
Documented around Ellsinore
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ellsinore checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 231 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ellsinore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellsinore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T36N R03E 04CBD1Nitrate · 200 ft
- ROBERTSON AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- POWELL'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- EAST CARTER COUNTY R2 SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ELLSINORE TRUCK & AUTO PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- T26N R03E 05AAA1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- LEERJAK TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELLSINORE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ROYAL OAK ENTERPRISES INC ELLSINOREToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
- T25N R02E 11Nitrate · 8.2 mi
- ECONOMY AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- ROBERT G KELLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellsinore'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 Ellsinore.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Ellsinore
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellsinore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellsinore
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Ellsinore
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 Ellsinore average
Your land is one point inside Ellsinore
Everything above resolves to Ellsinore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 324 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 Ellsinore Average
Ellsinore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ellsinore
- ●One soil character for all of Ellsinore
- ●Frost dates read at Ellsinore's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellsinore's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellsinore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellsinore, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellsinore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellsinore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellsinore average
How we know this about Ellsinore
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 Ellsinore’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 Ellsinore
When does frost risk typically end in Ellsinore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellsinore typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Ellsinore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellsinore 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 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellsinore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellsinore sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellsinore?
The federal record around Ellsinore is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ellsinore?
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 Ellsinore's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellsinore'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 Ellsinore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ellsinore's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 324 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellsinore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellsinore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellsinore, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellsinore's boundary and the 324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ellsinore's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ellsinore 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 Ellsinore's 324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carter 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 Carter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellsinore's 324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellsinore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 324 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Ellsinore-wide figureread your own land →
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