Licking, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Licking, 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 Licking 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 Licking — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Licking — the short answer
Licking, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Licking's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Licking's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Licking
Each reading below is measured for Licking itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLicking runs about 222 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
MeasuredLicking 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 Licking is in
Licking sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Licking's own centroid rather than borrowed from Texas County.
What Grows in Licking
Every plant below cleared Licking's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Licking?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Licking
Survey cells within 31 miles of Licking checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 300 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Licking
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Licking. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEWIS & SONS PHILLIP 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CONTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LICKING MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- T32N R08W 07BAA1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- GEORGE O. WHITE NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- OZARK 63 VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LICKING FULL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- T32N R09W 12AADNitrate · 2400 ft
- LICKING K-MUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RINNE'S TIRE SERVICE (FAST & FRIENDLY CONV STORE)Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1243Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RAMSEY'S STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Licking'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 Licking.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Licking
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Licking
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Licking
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Licking, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Licking. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Licking
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 Licking average
Your land is one point inside Licking
Everything above resolves to Licking as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Licking Average
Licking Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Licking
- ●One soil character for all of Licking
- ●Frost dates read at Licking's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Licking's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Licking
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Licking, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Licking averages can't show:
We read public map data around Licking — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Licking average
How we know this about Licking
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 Licking’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 Licking
When does frost risk typically end in Licking?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Licking typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Licking?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Licking typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Licking?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Licking sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Licking?
The federal record around Licking is light — 31 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Licking?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Licking's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Licking'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 Licking’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Licking's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,364 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Licking's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Licking's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 5 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Licking, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Licking's boundary and the 1,364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Licking's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Licking 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 Licking's 1,364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Texas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Texas 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 Texas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Licking's 1,364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Licking you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,364 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Licking-wide figureread your own land →
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