Hunter, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hunter, 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 Hunter 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 Hunter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hunter — the short answer
Hunter, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- 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
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Hunter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hunter's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hunter
Each reading below is measured for Hunter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHunter runs about 222 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
MeasuredHunter sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Hunter is in
Hunter sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hunter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carter County.
What Grows in Hunter
Every plant below cleared Hunter's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hunter?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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 Hunter
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hunter checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 236 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hunter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hunter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ECONOMY AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- T25N R02E 11Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- ELLSINORE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- ROYAL OAK ENTERPRISES INC ELLSINOREToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
- LEERJAK TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- ELLSINORE TRUCK & AUTO PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- T36N R03E 04CBD1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- ROBERTSON AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- EAST CARTER COUNTY R2 SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- POWELL'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- T26N R03E 05AAA1Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- ROBERT G KELLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hunter'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 Hunter.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Hunter
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hunter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hunter
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Hunter
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 Hunter average
Your land is one point inside Hunter
Everything above resolves to Hunter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Hunter Average
Hunter Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hunter
- ●One soil character for all of Hunter
- ●Frost dates read at Hunter's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hunter's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hunter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hunter, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hunter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hunter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hunter average
How we know this about Hunter
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 Hunter’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 Hunter
When does frost risk typically end in Hunter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hunter typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Hunter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hunter 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hunter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hunter sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 21, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hunter?
The federal record around Hunter is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 Hunter?
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 Hunter's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hunter'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 Hunter’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hunter's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,327 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hunter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hunter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 4 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hunter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hunter's boundary and the 2,327 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hunter's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hunter 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 Hunter's 2,327 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carter 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 Carter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hunter's 2,327 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hunter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,327 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.7 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 Hunter-wide figureread your own land →
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