Neosho, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Neosho, 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 Neosho 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 Neosho — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Neosho — the short answer
Neosho, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 7a is Neosho's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Neosho's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Neosho
Each reading below is measured for Neosho itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNeosho runs about 221 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
MeasuredNeosho sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Neosho is in
Neosho sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Neosho's own centroid rather than borrowed from Newton County.
What Grows in Neosho
Every plant below cleared Neosho's own zone 7a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Neosho?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Neosho
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Neosho. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M-63 NEOSHOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FIRE STATION #02Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WAL-MART STORE #17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NEOSHO CONCRETE PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 130Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- S & R AUTO BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- NUTRA BLEND CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- LOWES OF NEOSHO MO #2849Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- N & M CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUIK CHEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MDC NEOSHO CABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NEOSHO FOREST DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Neosho'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 Neosho.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Neosho
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Neosho
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Neosho, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Neosho — Mining (392 sites) and CAFO (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Neosho
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 Neosho average
Your land is one point inside Neosho
Everything above resolves to Neosho as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Neosho Average
Neosho Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Neosho
- ●One soil character for all of Neosho
- ●Frost dates read at Neosho's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Neosho's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Neosho
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Neosho, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Neosho averages can't show:
We read public map data around Neosho — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Neosho average
How we know this about Neosho
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 Neosho’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 Neosho
When does frost risk typically end in Neosho?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Neosho typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Neosho?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Neosho typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Neosho?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Neosho sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 21, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Neosho?
The federal record around Neosho runs heavier than most — 571 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (392), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Neosho?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Neosho's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Neosho'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 Neosho’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Neosho's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,983 acres it covers and 571 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Neosho's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Neosho's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 4 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 571 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Neosho, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Neosho's boundary and the 9,983 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Neosho's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Neosho's 9,983 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Newton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Newton 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 Newton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Neosho's 9,983 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Neosho you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,983 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Neosho-wide figureread your own land →
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