Elmo, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elmo, 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 Elmo 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 Elmo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elmo — the short answer
Elmo, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 139 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 139 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 5b is Elmo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elmo's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elmo
Each reading below is measured for Elmo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElmo runs about 201 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
MeasuredElmo sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Elmo is in
Elmo sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elmo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nodaway County.
What Grows in Elmo
Every plant below cleared Elmo's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elmo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (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. 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 Elmo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elmo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W F BAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- T66N R37W 20BDNitrate · 1400 ft
- CLARINDA WATER PLANTPFAS · 2.2 mi
- T66N R37W 24DCNitrate · 3.8 mi
- CLEARMONT MAINTENANCE LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- T65N R37W 09CAD1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- DEMPSEY HARDEN OIL CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- 067N37W22DCD 1946Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- LLOYD'S CONOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elmo'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 Elmo.
Total Sites
22
within ~10 miles of Elmo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elmo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elmo
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.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Elmo
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 Elmo average
Your land is one point inside Elmo
Everything above resolves to Elmo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 139 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 Elmo Average
Elmo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Elmo
- ●One soil character for all of Elmo
- ●Frost dates read at Elmo's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elmo's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elmo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elmo, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elmo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elmo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elmo average
How we know this about Elmo
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 Elmo’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 Elmo
When does frost risk typically end in Elmo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elmo typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Elmo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elmo 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elmo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elmo sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elmo?
The federal record around Elmo shows 22 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Elmo?
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 Elmo's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elmo'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 Elmo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elmo's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 139 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elmo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elmo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elmo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elmo's boundary and the 139 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elmo'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 Elmo's 139 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nodaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nodaway 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 Nodaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elmo's 139 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elmo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 139 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Elmo-wide figureread your own land →