Lithium, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lithium, 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 Lithium 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 Lithium — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lithium — the short answer
Lithium, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 493 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 Lithium's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lithium's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lithium
Each reading below is measured for Lithium itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLithium runs about 221 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
MeasuredLithium 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 Lithium is in
Lithium sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lithium's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Lithium
Every plant below cleared Lithium's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lithium?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Lithium
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lithium. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ERNST SERV STA & MACHINE SHOP, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PERRYVILLE MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- GREMAUD'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ARCH PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- T37N R10E 29DDB1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- T35N R10E 02CAA1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- T36N R10E 33ACC1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- OUR PLACE CONV & GAS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- CITY OF ST MARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- George Davis LandMining · 4.6 mi
- MINNITH STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MINNITH QUICK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lithium'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 Lithium.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Lithium
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lithium
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lithium
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lithium, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lithium — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (89 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lithium
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 Lithium average
Your land is one point inside Lithium
Everything above resolves to Lithium as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 493 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 Lithium Average
Lithium Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lithium
- ●One soil character for all of Lithium
- ●Frost dates read at Lithium's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lithium's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lithium
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lithium, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lithium averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lithium — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lithium average
How we know this about Lithium
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 Lithium’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 Lithium
When does frost risk typically end in Lithium?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lithium typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Lithium?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lithium 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 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lithium?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lithium sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 19, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lithium?
The federal record around Lithium is a meaningful one — 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lithium?
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 Lithium's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lithium'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 Lithium’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lithium's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 493 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lithium's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lithium's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 2 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lithium, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lithium's boundary and the 493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lithium's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lithium's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lithium's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lithium you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Lithium-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLithium sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides