Holcomb, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Holcomb, 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 Holcomb 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 Holcomb — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holcomb — the short answer
Holcomb, Missouri: USDA zone 7b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 373 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 373 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 7b is Holcomb's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holcomb's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holcomb
Each reading below is measured for Holcomb itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHolcomb runs about 258 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
MeasuredHolcomb sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Holcomb is in
Holcomb sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holcomb's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dunklin County.
What Grows in Holcomb
Every plant below cleared Holcomb's own zone 7b and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holcomb?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Holcomb
Survey cells within 31 miles of Holcomb checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 186 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Holcomb
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holcomb. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOLCOMB JUNCTION LTD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- T20N R10E 06BDD1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- EARL JORDANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BILL'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GEORGE LUNA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ROBINSON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RONNIE MCELWRATHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- T & P EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- T20N R10E 06BDDNitrate · 1600 ft
- VICIOUS ENGINESBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- T21N R10E 17CDC1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- T21N R10E 22BADNitrate · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holcomb'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 Holcomb.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Holcomb
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holcomb
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holcomb
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holcomb, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Holcomb — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Holcomb
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 Holcomb average
Your land is one point inside Holcomb
Everything above resolves to Holcomb as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 373 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 Holcomb Average
Holcomb Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Holcomb
- ●One soil character for all of Holcomb
- ●Frost dates read at Holcomb's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holcomb's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holcomb
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holcomb, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holcomb averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holcomb — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holcomb average
How we know this about Holcomb
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 Holcomb’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 Holcomb
When does frost risk typically end in Holcomb?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holcomb typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Holcomb?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holcomb typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holcomb?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holcomb sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 9, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holcomb?
The federal record around Holcomb is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Holcomb?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holcomb's scale — its 7b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holcomb'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 Holcomb’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Holcomb's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 373 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holcomb's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holcomb's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 23 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holcomb, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holcomb's boundary and the 373 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holcomb's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Holcomb 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 Holcomb's 373 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dunklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dunklin 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 Dunklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holcomb's 373 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holcomb you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 373 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 Holcomb-wide figureread your own land →