Keytesville, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Keytesville, 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 Keytesville 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 Keytesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keytesville — the short answer
Keytesville, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 492 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 492 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 Keytesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keytesville's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keytesville
Each reading below is measured for Keytesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeytesville runs about 214 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
MeasuredKeytesville 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 Keytesville is in
Keytesville sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Keytesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chariton County.
What Grows in Keytesville
Every plant below cleared Keytesville's own zone 6a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keytesville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 1 — 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 Keytesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keytesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DREWS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1558Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KEYTESVILLE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BETTY BATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- T53N R18W 05ADA1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- T53N R18W 05ACA1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- T53N R18W 05AAD1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- KEYTESVILLE R-III PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KEYTESVILLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHARITON CO SHELTERED WORKSHOP INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- DALTON COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 3-D PIG COCAFO · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keytesville'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 Keytesville.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Keytesville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keytesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keytesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keytesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Keytesville — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Keytesville
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 Keytesville average
Your land is one point inside Keytesville
Everything above resolves to Keytesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 492 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 Keytesville Average
Keytesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Keytesville
- ●One soil character for all of Keytesville
- ●Frost dates read at Keytesville's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keytesville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keytesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keytesville, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keytesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keytesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keytesville average
How we know this about Keytesville
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 Keytesville’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 Keytesville
When does frost risk typically end in Keytesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keytesville 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 Keytesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keytesville typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keytesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keytesville sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 18, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keytesville?
The federal record around Keytesville shows 66 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Keytesville?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keytesville's scale — its 6a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keytesville'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 Keytesville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keytesville's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 492 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keytesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keytesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 1 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keytesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keytesville's boundary and the 492 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keytesville's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keytesville's 492 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chariton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chariton 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 Chariton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keytesville's 492 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keytesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 492 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 Keytesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriKeytesville sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides