Jefferson City, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Jefferson City, 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 Jefferson City 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 Jefferson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jefferson City — the short answer
Jefferson City, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Jefferson City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jefferson City's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jefferson City
Each reading below is measured for Jefferson City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJefferson City runs about 229 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
MeasuredJefferson City 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 Jefferson City is in
Jefferson City sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jefferson City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cole County.
What Grows in Jefferson City
Every plant below cleared Jefferson City's own zone 6b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jefferson City?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
Documented around Jefferson City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Jefferson City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 306 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jefferson City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jefferson City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T44N R11W 07CAD1Nitrate · 700 ft
- ADAMS STREET A STONEBRIDGE COMMUNITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BEE LINE SNACK SHOP #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 3929Brownfields · 1500 ft
- MARK'S SOUTHSIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LINCOLN UNIVERSITY-LINCOLN UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CAPITAL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- JEFFERSON STREET APCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CAPITAL REGION MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SCOTT'S AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JEFFERSON CITY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2000 ft
- EWERS TIRES INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jefferson City'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 Jefferson City.
Total Sites
400
within ~10 miles of Jefferson City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jefferson City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jefferson City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jefferson City, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Jefferson City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Jefferson City
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 Jefferson City average
Your land is one point inside Jefferson City
Everything above resolves to Jefferson City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 Jefferson City Average
Jefferson City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Jefferson City
- ●One soil character for all of Jefferson City
- ●Frost dates read at Jefferson City's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jefferson City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jefferson City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jefferson City, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jefferson City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jefferson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jefferson City average
How we know this about Jefferson City
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 Jefferson City’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 Jefferson City
When does frost risk typically end in Jefferson City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jefferson City typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Jefferson City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jefferson City typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jefferson City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jefferson City sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 26, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jefferson City?
The federal record around Jefferson City is a meaningful one — 400 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (204), the nearest Nitrate 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 Jefferson City?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jefferson City's scale — its 6b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jefferson City'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 Jefferson City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jefferson City's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,080 acres it covers and 400 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jefferson City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jefferson City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 400 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jefferson City, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jefferson City's boundary and the 23,080 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jefferson City's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Jefferson City 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 Jefferson City's 23,080 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cole County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cole 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 Cole County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jefferson City's 23,080 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jefferson City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,080 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Jefferson City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriJefferson City sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides