Fulton, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fulton, 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 Fulton 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 Fulton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fulton — the short answer
Fulton, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 8K 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)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Fulton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fulton's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fulton
Each reading below is measured for Fulton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFulton runs about 217 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
MeasuredFulton 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 Fulton is in
Fulton sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fulton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Callaway County.
What Grows in Fulton
Every plant below cleared Fulton's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fulton?
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 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 Nov 4 — 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 Fulton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fulton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 283 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fulton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fulton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DANUSER MACHINE COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 350 ft
- T47N R09W 17ABB1Nitrate · 450 ft
- FULTON MUNICIPAL UTILITIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HARBISON - WALKER RET COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FASTLANE FULTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MID STATE CONCRETE PIPEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FULTON CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 4089Brownfields · 2100 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #18029Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WALSWORTH INC - FULTONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- HARBISONWALKER INTERNATIONAL, INC. FULTON ROTARY KILNToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- HARBISONWALKER INTERNATIONAL, INC. FULTON ROTARY KILNBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fulton'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 Fulton.
Total Sites
154
within ~10 miles of Fulton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fulton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fulton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fulton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Fulton. 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 Fulton
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 Fulton average
Your land is one point inside Fulton
Everything above resolves to Fulton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Fulton Average
Fulton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fulton
- ●One soil character for all of Fulton
- ●Frost dates read at Fulton's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fulton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fulton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fulton, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fulton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fulton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fulton average
How we know this about Fulton
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 Fulton’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 Fulton
When does frost risk typically end in Fulton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fulton 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 Fulton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fulton 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 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fulton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fulton sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fulton?
The federal record around Fulton shows 154 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fulton?
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 Fulton's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fulton'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 Fulton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fulton's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,893 acres it covers and 154 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fulton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fulton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 154 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fulton, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fulton's boundary and the 7,893 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fulton's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fulton 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 Fulton's 7,893 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Callaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Callaway 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 Callaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fulton's 7,893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fulton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,893 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fulton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriFulton sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides