Louisburg, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Louisburg, 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 Louisburg 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 Louisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Louisburg — the short answer
Louisburg, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 298 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 298 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 Louisburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Louisburg's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Louisburg
Each reading below is measured for Louisburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLouisburg runs about 220 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
MeasuredLouisburg 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 Louisburg is in
Louisburg sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Louisburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Louisburg
Every plant below cleared Louisburg's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Louisburg?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Louisburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Louisburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 373 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Louisburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Louisburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARCHIES 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- T35N R20W 28DAB1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Booth ShaftMining · 1.6 mi
- James Evans ProspectMining · 1.6 mi
- AMUNDSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Henry Booth ShaftMining · 4.5 mi
- Nasalrod DiggingsMining · 4.8 mi
- Smith MinesMining · 4.9 mi
- Plummer FarmMining · 5.4 mi
- Unknown - Lead + ZincMining · 5.4 mi
- T34N R19W 06ANitrate · 5.7 mi
- T34N R20W 11Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Louisburg'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 Louisburg.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Louisburg
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Louisburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Louisburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Louisburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Louisburg — Mining (16 sites) and Nitrate (22 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Louisburg
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 Louisburg average
Your land is one point inside Louisburg
Everything above resolves to Louisburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 298 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 Louisburg Average
Louisburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Louisburg
- ●One soil character for all of Louisburg
- ●Frost dates read at Louisburg's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Louisburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Louisburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Louisburg, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Louisburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Louisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Louisburg average
How we know this about Louisburg
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 Louisburg’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 Louisburg
When does frost risk typically end in Louisburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Louisburg typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Louisburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Louisburg typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Louisburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Louisburg sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Louisburg?
The federal record around Louisburg runs heavier than most — 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Louisburg?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Louisburg's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Louisburg'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 Louisburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Louisburg's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 298 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Louisburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Louisburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Louisburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Louisburg's boundary and the 298 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Louisburg's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Louisburg 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 Louisburg's 298 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Louisburg's 298 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Louisburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 298 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Louisburg-wide figureread your own land →
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