Niangua, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Niangua, 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 Niangua 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 Niangua — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Niangua — the short answer
Niangua, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 262 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 262 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 6b is Niangua's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Niangua's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Niangua
Each reading below is measured for Niangua itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNiangua runs about 225 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
MeasuredNiangua sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Niangua is in
Niangua sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Niangua's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster County.
What Grows in Niangua
Every plant below cleared Niangua's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Niangua?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 8 — 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 Niangua
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Niangua. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L.L. DAY LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- NIANGUA-C.O.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- T31N R17W 20BCA2Nitrate · 1400 ft
- HARRIS ENTERPRISES INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- CAMYER INDUSTRIES LLCBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- CARLSONS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- JOY'S MARKET PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- T30N R18W 10ABB1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1408Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- MARSHFIELD TRANSPORTATION PRODBrownfields · 5.3 mi
- CAR CORRAL MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- RAPID ROBERT S #119 CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Niangua'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 Niangua.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Niangua
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Niangua
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Niangua
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Niangua, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Niangua. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Niangua
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 Niangua average
Your land is one point inside Niangua
Everything above resolves to Niangua as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 262 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 Niangua Average
Niangua Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Niangua
- ●One soil character for all of Niangua
- ●Frost dates read at Niangua's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Niangua's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Niangua
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Niangua, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Niangua averages can't show:
We read public map data around Niangua — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Niangua average
How we know this about Niangua
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 Niangua’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 Niangua
When does frost risk typically end in Niangua?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Niangua 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 Niangua?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Niangua typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Niangua?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Niangua sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 25, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Niangua?
The federal record around Niangua shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Niangua?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Niangua's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Niangua'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 Niangua’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Niangua's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 262 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Niangua's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Niangua's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 8 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Niangua, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Niangua's boundary and the 262 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Niangua's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Niangua's 262 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Niangua's 262 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Niangua you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 262 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 Niangua-wide figureread your own land →
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