Knob Lick, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Knob Lick, 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 Knob Lick 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 Knob Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Knob Lick — the short answer
Knob Lick, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 636 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 636 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 Knob Lick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Knob Lick's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Knob Lick
Each reading below is measured for Knob Lick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKnob Lick 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
MeasuredKnob Lick 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 Knob Lick is in
Knob Lick sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Knob Lick's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Francois County.
What Grows in Knob Lick
Every plant below cleared Knob Lick'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 Knob Lick?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Knob Lick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Knob Lick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mine La Motte #2Mining · 1.9 mi
- Mine La Motte #1Mining · 2.9 mi
- Unknown - Lead.Copper-Nickel.CobaltMining · 3.2 mi
- Unknown - LeadMining · 3.7 mi
- Unknown - Lead.Copper.Cobalt.NickelMining · 4.2 mi
- TILLMAN HOUSESuperfund · 4.4 mi
- Unknown - Lead.ZincMining · 4.7 mi
- PACE CONSTRUCTION - FARMINGTONBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- T35N R05E 13Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- FARMINGTON CORRECTIONAL CENTERPFAS · 5.3 mi
- FARMINGTON PWSPFAS · 5.3 mi
- T35N R05E 20Nitrate · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Knob Lick'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 Knob Lick.
Total Sites
208
within ~10 miles of Knob Lick
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Knob Lick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Knob Lick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Knob Lick, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Knob Lick — Mining (75 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Knob Lick
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 Knob Lick average
Your land is one point inside Knob Lick
Everything above resolves to Knob Lick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 636 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 Knob Lick Average
Knob Lick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Knob Lick
- ●One soil character for all of Knob Lick
- ●Frost dates read at Knob Lick's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Knob Lick's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Knob Lick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Knob Lick, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Knob Lick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Knob Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Knob Lick average
How we know this about Knob Lick
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 Knob Lick’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 Knob Lick
When does frost risk typically end in Knob Lick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Knob Lick 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 Knob Lick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Knob Lick 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 Knob Lick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Knob Lick 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 Knob Lick?
The federal record around Knob Lick runs heavier than most — 208 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (75), the nearest Mining record about 1.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Knob Lick?
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 Knob Lick's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Knob Lick'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 Knob Lick’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Knob Lick's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 636 acres it covers and 208 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Knob Lick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Knob Lick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 2 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 208 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Knob Lick, the closest Mining record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Knob Lick's boundary and the 636 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 Knob Lick's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Knob Lick's 636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Francois County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Francois 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 St. Francois County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Knob Lick's 636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Knob Lick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 636 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.9 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 Knob Lick-wide figureread your own land →
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