Harris, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Harris, 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 Harris 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 Harris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Harris — the short answer
Harris, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 99 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 99 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 6a is Harris's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harris's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harris
Each reading below is measured for Harris itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHarris runs about 205 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
MeasuredHarris sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Harris is in
Harris sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Harris's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Harris
Every plant below cleared Harris's own zone 6a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harris?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Harris
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harris. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRIS MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SMITHFIELD HOG PRODUCTION, LOCUST RIDGECAFO · 2.0 mi
- WISE ENTERPRISES, INC.CAFO · 2.1 mi
- SMITHFIELD HOG PRODUCTION, OVERLOOK FARMCAFO · 2.3 mi
- RONALD FAULKNER FARMCAFO · 2.9 mi
- SMITHFIELD, SUMMERS NURSERYCAFO · 3.6 mi
- T64N R22W 02DDB1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- FOWLER CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- SOO LINE RAILROAD NEWTON SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- T66N R23W 12Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- T64N R22W 02Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- DAVID BROWN FARMCAFO · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harris'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 Harris.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Harris
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harris
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harris
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harris, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Harris — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Harris
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 Harris average
Your land is one point inside Harris
Everything above resolves to Harris as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 99 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 Harris Average
Harris Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Harris
- ●One soil character for all of Harris
- ●Frost dates read at Harris's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harris's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harris
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harris, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harris averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harris — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harris average
How we know this about Harris
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 Harris’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 Harris
When does frost risk typically end in Harris?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harris typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Harris?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harris typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harris?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harris sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harris?
The federal record around Harris is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly CAFO entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Harris?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Harris's scale — its 6a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harris'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 Harris’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Harris's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 99 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harris's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harris's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harris, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harris's boundary and the 99 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harris's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harris's 99 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harris's 99 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harris you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 99 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Harris-wide figureread your own land →