Monroe City, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Monroe City, 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 Monroe City 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 Monroe City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monroe City — the short answer
Monroe City, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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
- City area
- 2K 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 Monroe City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monroe City's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monroe City
Each reading below is measured for Monroe City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonroe City 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
MeasuredMonroe City 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 Monroe City is in
Monroe City sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Monroe City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Monroe City
Every plant below cleared Monroe City's own zone 6a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monroe City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Monroe City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monroe City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD DX SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MONROE CITY SHELTERED WORKSHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KATHRYN A BIRDSONGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MONROE CITY AMBULANCE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ABELS QUIK SHOP #14Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ADAMS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PAT'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 10702Brownfields · 1300 ft
- DJ'S CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KUHLMAN DIECASTING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- REN POTTERFIELD TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monroe City'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 Monroe City.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Monroe City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monroe City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monroe City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monroe City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Monroe City — CAFO (9 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Monroe City
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 Monroe City average
Your land is one point inside Monroe City
Everything above resolves to Monroe City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Monroe City Average
Monroe City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Monroe City
- ●One soil character for all of Monroe City
- ●Frost dates read at Monroe City's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monroe City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monroe City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monroe City, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monroe City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monroe City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monroe City average
How we know this about Monroe City
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 Monroe City’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 Monroe City
When does frost risk typically end in Monroe City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monroe City 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 Monroe City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monroe City 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 Monroe City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monroe City 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 Monroe City?
The federal record around Monroe City shows 48 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Monroe City?
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 Monroe City's scale — its 6a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monroe City'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 Monroe City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Monroe City's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,939 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monroe City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monroe City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monroe City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monroe City's boundary and the 1,939 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monroe City's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monroe City's 1,939 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monroe City's 1,939 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monroe City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,939 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Monroe City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriMonroe City sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides