Houstonia, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Houstonia, 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 Houstonia 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 Houstonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Houstonia — the short answer
Houstonia, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 127 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- 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
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 127 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 Houstonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Houstonia's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Houstonia
Each reading below is measured for Houstonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoustonia 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
MeasuredHoustonia 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 Houstonia is in
Houstonia sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Houstonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pettis County.
What Grows in Houstonia
Every plant below cleared Houstonia'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 Houstonia?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Houstonia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Houstonia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 335 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Houstonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Houstonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTHWEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- T48N R22W 32CAC1Nitrate · 950 ft
- KELLY DUFFEY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- T48N R22W 32CDA1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- WHITEMAN AFB BRAVO-10Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB BRAVO-9Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB BRAVO-8Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPELINEBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- K AND D FARMSCAFO · 4.3 mi
- T48N R22W 09BCNitrate · 4.3 mi
- KOPPEL FABRICATION INCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- NORTHWEST HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Houstonia'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 Houstonia.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Houstonia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Houstonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Houstonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Houstonia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Houstonia — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Houstonia
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 Houstonia average
Your land is one point inside Houstonia
Everything above resolves to Houstonia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127 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 Houstonia Average
Houstonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Houstonia
- ●One soil character for all of Houstonia
- ●Frost dates read at Houstonia's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Houstonia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Houstonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Houstonia, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Houstonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Houstonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Houstonia average
How we know this about Houstonia
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 Houstonia’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 Houstonia
When does frost risk typically end in Houstonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Houstonia typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Houstonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Houstonia 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 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Houstonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Houstonia sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 21, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Houstonia?
The federal record around Houstonia shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Houstonia?
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 Houstonia's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Houstonia'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 Houstonia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Houstonia's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 127 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Houstonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Houstonia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Houstonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Houstonia's boundary and the 127 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 Houstonia's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Houstonia 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 Houstonia's 127 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pettis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pettis 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 Pettis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Houstonia's 127 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Houstonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 127 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 Houstonia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriHoustonia sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides