Malden, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Malden, 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 Malden 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 Malden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Malden — the short answer
Malden, Missouri: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 7b is Malden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Malden's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Malden
Each reading below is measured for Malden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMalden runs about 255 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
MeasuredMalden sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Malden is in
Malden sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Malden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dunklin County.
What Grows in Malden
Every plant below cleared Malden's own zone 7b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Malden?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Malden
Survey cells within 31 miles of Malden checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 186 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Malden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Malden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEMO AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MALDEN VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FEDERAL MOGUL CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- T23N R10E 28DCC1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- T23N R10E 28ADD1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- BEE CEE MANUFACTURING CO.Superfund · 1.0 mi
- T23N R10E 31BDC1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- OZARK WIRE LTD INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- ROY OWENS CONSTRUCTION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DANNY'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1899Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- RICHARDSON-WYNETTE MOTORS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Malden'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 Malden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Malden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Malden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Malden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Malden — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (32 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Malden
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 Malden average
Your land is one point inside Malden
Everything above resolves to Malden 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 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 Malden Average
Malden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Malden
- ●One soil character for all of Malden
- ●Frost dates read at Malden's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Malden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Malden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Malden, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Malden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Malden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Malden average
How we know this about Malden
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 Malden’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 Malden
When does frost risk typically end in Malden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Malden typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Malden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Malden typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Malden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Malden sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 8, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Malden?
The federal record around Malden is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Malden?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Malden's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Malden'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 Malden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Malden's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,325 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Malden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Malden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 22 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Malden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Malden's boundary and the 5,325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Malden's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Malden 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 Malden's 5,325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dunklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dunklin 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 Dunklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Malden's 5,325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Malden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Malden-wide figureread your own land →