Milan, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Milan, 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 Milan 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 Milan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milan — the short answer
Milan, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- 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 6a is Milan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milan's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milan
Each reading below is measured for Milan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilan 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
MeasuredMilan 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 Milan is in
Milan sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Milan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Milan
Every plant below cleared Milan'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 Milan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Milan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1544Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DONNIE LAWRENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MILAN C-2 SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- H & Q USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3266Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DERYKE D-X SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MILAN PROCESSINGToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- MILAN PROCESSINGBrownfields · 2300 ft
- T62N R20W 02CAC1Nitrate · 2300 ft
- SULLIVAN COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MHTD & MSHPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MILAN MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milan'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 Milan.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Milan
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Milan — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Milan
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 Milan average
Your land is one point inside Milan
Everything above resolves to Milan 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 Milan Average
Milan Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Milan
- ●One soil character for all of Milan
- ●Frost dates read at Milan's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milan's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milan, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milan average
How we know this about Milan
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 Milan’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 Milan
When does frost risk typically end in Milan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milan typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Milan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milan typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milan sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 15, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milan?
The federal record around Milan is light — 28 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Milan?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milan's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milan'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 Milan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Milan's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,135 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 29 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milan's boundary and the 1,135 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 Milan's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milan's 1,135 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milan's 1,135 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,135 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Milan-wide figureread your own land →