Lake Viking, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Lake Viking, 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 Lake Viking 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 Lake Viking — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Viking — the short answer
Lake Viking, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Lake Viking's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Viking's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Viking
Each reading below is measured for Lake Viking itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Viking runs about 207 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
MeasuredLake Viking 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 Lake Viking is in
Lake Viking sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Viking's own centroid rather than borrowed from Daviess County.
What Grows in Lake Viking
Every plant below cleared Lake Viking's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Viking?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. 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 Lake Viking
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Viking. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TERRY IMPLEMENT CO INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- T59N R28W 34DDD1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- TERRY IMPLEMENT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- STAN'S TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #0089Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2646Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- GALLATIN MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- CLINTON COUNTY PWSD 3PFAS · 6.0 mi
- WINSTON PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- T59N R27W 20Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- GALLATIN GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- T60N R27W 18BBB1Nitrate · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Viking'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 Lake Viking.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Lake Viking
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Viking
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Viking
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Viking, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Viking. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lake Viking
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 Lake Viking average
Your land is one point inside Lake Viking
Everything above resolves to Lake Viking as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Lake Viking Average
Lake Viking Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake Viking
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Viking
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Viking's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Viking's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Viking
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Viking, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Viking averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Viking — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Viking average
How we know this about Lake Viking
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 Lake Viking’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 Lake Viking
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Viking?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Viking typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Lake Viking?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Viking 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 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Viking?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Viking sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Viking?
The federal record around Lake Viking shows 38 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.9 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 Lake Viking?
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 Lake Viking's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Viking'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 Lake Viking’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Viking's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,041 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Viking's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Viking's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Viking, the closest Brownfields record about 2.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Viking's boundary and the 5,041 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Viking's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Viking's 5,041 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Daviess 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 Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Viking's 5,041 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Viking you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,041 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.9 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 Lake Viking-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLake Viking sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.