Indian Lake, 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.
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 Indian Lake, 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 Indian Lake 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 Indian Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Indian Lake — the short answer
Indian Lake, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 919 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 919 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 Indian Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Indian Lake's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Indian Lake
Each reading below is measured for Indian Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIndian Lake runs about 209 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
MeasuredIndian Lake 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 Indian Lake is in
Indian Lake sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Indian Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Indian Lake
Every plant below cleared Indian Lake's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Indian Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Indian Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Indian Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 295 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Indian Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Indian Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDIAN HILL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SANDI'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CUBA PWSPFAS · 1.5 mi
- T39N R05W 23DBA1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- THRIFTY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CITY OF CUBAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CUBA MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- MPC #53Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- PETRO MART #19Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CUBAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CUBA SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- AJS FAMILY RESTURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Indian Lake'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 Indian Lake.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Indian Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Indian Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Indian Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Indian Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Indian Lake — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Indian Lake
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 Indian Lake average
Your land is one point inside Indian Lake
Everything above resolves to Indian Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 919 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 Indian Lake Average
Indian Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Indian Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Indian Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Indian Lake's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Indian Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Indian Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Indian Lake, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Indian Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Indian Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Indian Lake average
How we know this about Indian Lake
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 Indian Lake’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 Indian Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Indian Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Indian Lake typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Indian Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Indian Lake typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Indian Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Indian Lake sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 15, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Indian Lake?
The federal record around Indian Lake shows 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Indian Lake?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Indian Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Indian Lake'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 Indian Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Indian Lake's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 919 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Indian Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Indian Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 29 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Indian Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Indian Lake's boundary and the 919 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Indian Lake's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Indian Lake 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 Indian Lake's 919 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Indian Lake's 919 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Indian Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 919 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Indian Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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