Fayette, 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 Fayette, 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 Fayette 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 Fayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fayette — the short answer
Fayette, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6b is Fayette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fayette's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fayette
Each reading below is measured for Fayette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFayette runs about 218 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
MeasuredFayette 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 Fayette is in
Fayette sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fayette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Howard County.
What Grows in Fayette
Every plant below cleared Fayette's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fayette?
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 3 — 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 Fayette
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fayette checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 296 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fayette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fayette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOME OIL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CENTRAL METHODIST UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 600 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DJS C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CITY OF FAYETTE, STREET DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2691Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KPL GAS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAYETTE SCHOOL DIST R-III BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 4090Brownfields · 1400 ft
- ALBERT M KELLER MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- T50N R16W 11CBB1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- FAYETTE WATER & LIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fayette'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 Fayette.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Fayette
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fayette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fayette
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 Fayette
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 Fayette average
Your land is one point inside Fayette
Everything above resolves to Fayette 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 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 Fayette Average
Fayette Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fayette
- ●One soil character for all of Fayette
- ●Frost dates read at Fayette's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fayette's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fayette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fayette, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fayette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fayette average
How we know this about Fayette
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 Fayette’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 Fayette
When does frost risk typically end in Fayette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fayette 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 Fayette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fayette typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fayette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fayette sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 20, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fayette?
The federal record around Fayette is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Fayette?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fayette's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fayette'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 Fayette’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fayette's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,419 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fayette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fayette's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fayette, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fayette's boundary and the 1,419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fayette's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fayette 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 Fayette's 1,419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fayette's 1,419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fayette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,419 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Fayette-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriFayette sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides