McFall, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McFall, 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 McFall 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 McFall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McFall — the short answer
McFall, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 196 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 196 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 6a is McFall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McFall's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McFall
Each reading below is measured for McFall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcFall runs about 208 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
MeasuredMcFall sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 McFall is in
McFall sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McFall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gentry County.
What Grows in McFall
Every plant below cleared McFall's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McFall?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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.
What's on the federal record near McFall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McFall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WFHF, LLCCAFO · 1.5 mi
- T61N R30W 23CDD1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- OLD OAK SOW FARMCAFO · 4.8 mi
- T62N R30W 20BAB1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- T62N R29W 08BAC1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- DEKALB COUNTY PWSD 1PFAS · 5.9 mi
- NALLE PIGGERY AT CAMPBELL CREEK, LLCCAFO · 6.2 mi
- T61N R29W 35BBC1Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- PATTONSBURG R-II SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- MAIN STREET STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- T61N R29W 35BDA1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- T62N R29W 25DDD1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McFall'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 McFall.
Total Sites
24
within ~10 miles of McFall
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McFall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McFall
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in McFall
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 McFall average
Your land is one point inside McFall
Everything above resolves to McFall as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 196 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 McFall Average
McFall Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across McFall
- ●One soil character for all of McFall
- ●Frost dates read at McFall's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McFall's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McFall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McFall, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McFall averages can't show:
We read public map data around McFall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McFall average
How we know this about McFall
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 McFall’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 McFall
When does frost risk typically end in McFall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McFall typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in McFall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McFall typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McFall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McFall sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McFall?
The federal record around McFall shows 24 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest CAFO record about 1.5 miles 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 McFall?
From about Sep 30 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McFall's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McFall'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 McFall’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McFall's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 196 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McFall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McFall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 30 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McFall, the closest CAFO record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McFall's boundary and the 196 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McFall's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McFall's 196 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gentry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gentry 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 Gentry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McFall's 196 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McFall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 196 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 1.5 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 McFall-wide figureread your own land →