Ironton, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ironton, 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 Ironton 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 Ironton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ironton — the short answer
Ironton, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 860 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 860 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 Ironton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ironton's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ironton
Each reading below is measured for Ironton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIronton runs about 215 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
MeasuredIronton 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 Ironton is in
Ironton sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ironton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iron County.
What Grows in Ironton
Every plant below cleared Ironton's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ironton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Ironton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ironton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- RHODES OIL CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ARCADIA VALLEY AREA VOTECH SCHOOLBrownfields · 750 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #11206Brownfields · 800 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1155Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- OZARK TRUCKERSSuperfund · 900 ft
- GAS PLUS IRONTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHEETS AUTO SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ARCADIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ROGER MCHENRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3086Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ironton'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 Ironton.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Ironton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ironton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ironton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ironton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ironton — Superfund (5 sites) and Mining (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Ironton
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 Ironton average
Your land is one point inside Ironton
Everything above resolves to Ironton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 860 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 Ironton Average
Ironton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ironton
- ●One soil character for all of Ironton
- ●Frost dates read at Ironton's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ironton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ironton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ironton, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ironton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ironton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ironton average
How we know this about Ironton
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 Ironton’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 Ironton
When does frost risk typically end in Ironton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ironton typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Ironton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ironton typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ironton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ironton sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 19, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ironton?
The federal record around Ironton is a meaningful one — 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (22), 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 Ironton?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ironton's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ironton'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 Ironton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ironton's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 860 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ironton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ironton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ironton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ironton's boundary and the 860 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ironton's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ironton's 860 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iron 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 Iron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ironton's 860 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ironton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 860 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 Ironton-wide figureread your own land →
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