Lamar, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lamar, 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 Lamar 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 Lamar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lamar — the short answer
Lamar, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 7a is Lamar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lamar's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lamar
Each reading below is measured for Lamar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLamar runs about 226 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
MeasuredLamar sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Lamar is in
Lamar sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lamar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barton County.
What Grows in Lamar
Every plant below cleared Lamar's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lamar?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Lamar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lamar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ABANDONED STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- TACO PALACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- STEVES COASTAL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- HOWARD SCARBERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CITY OF LAMARUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PUMP N PETES #37Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FARMERS EXGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PUMP N PETES #34Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AMOCO ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WAL-MART STORE #338Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAST EDDIE HOT ROD SHOPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lamar'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 Lamar.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Lamar
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lamar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lamar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lamar, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lamar — Nitrate (26 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lamar
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 Lamar average
Your land is one point inside Lamar
Everything above resolves to Lamar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Lamar Average
Lamar Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lamar
- ●One soil character for all of Lamar
- ●Frost dates read at Lamar's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lamar's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lamar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lamar, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lamar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lamar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lamar average
How we know this about Lamar
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 Lamar’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 Lamar
When does frost risk typically end in Lamar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lamar typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Lamar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lamar typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lamar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lamar sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 25, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lamar?
The federal record around Lamar shows 68 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lamar?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lamar's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lamar'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 Lamar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lamar's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,337 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lamar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lamar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 8 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lamar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lamar's boundary and the 3,337 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lamar's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lamar's 3,337 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barton 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 Barton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lamar's 3,337 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lamar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,337 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lamar-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLamar sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides