Hunnewell, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hunnewell, 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 Hunnewell 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 Hunnewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hunnewell — the short answer
Hunnewell, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 394 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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
- 394 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 Hunnewell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hunnewell's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hunnewell
Each reading below is measured for Hunnewell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHunnewell 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
MeasuredHunnewell 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 Hunnewell is in
Hunnewell sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hunnewell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Hunnewell
Every plant below cleared Hunnewell's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hunnewell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. 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.
What's on the federal record near Hunnewell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hunnewell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUNNEWELL HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- TWO MILE PORK LLC - KIRBYCAFO · 3.2 mi
- QUINN PORK LLCCAFO · 4.7 mi
- ABELS QUIK SHOP #14Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- MONROE CITY SHELTERED WORKSHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- ADAMS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 10702Brownfields · 6.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- KATHRYN A BIRDSONGUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- MONROE CITY AMBULANCE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- OLD DX SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- PAT'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hunnewell'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 Hunnewell.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Hunnewell
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hunnewell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hunnewell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hunnewell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hunnewell — CAFO (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hunnewell
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 Hunnewell average
Your land is one point inside Hunnewell
Everything above resolves to Hunnewell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 394 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 Hunnewell Average
Hunnewell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hunnewell
- ●One soil character for all of Hunnewell
- ●Frost dates read at Hunnewell's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hunnewell's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hunnewell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hunnewell, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hunnewell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hunnewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hunnewell average
How we know this about Hunnewell
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 Hunnewell’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 Hunnewell
When does frost risk typically end in Hunnewell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hunnewell 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 Hunnewell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hunnewell 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 Hunnewell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hunnewell 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 Hunnewell?
The federal record around Hunnewell shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles 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 Hunnewell?
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 Hunnewell's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hunnewell'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 Hunnewell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hunnewell's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 394 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hunnewell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hunnewell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 4 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hunnewell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hunnewell's boundary and the 394 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hunnewell's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hunnewell's 394 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hunnewell's 394 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hunnewell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 394 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Hunnewell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriHunnewell sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides