Olean, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Olean, 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 Olean 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 Olean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olean — the short answer
Olean, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Olean's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olean's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olean
Each reading below is measured for Olean itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlean runs about 228 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
MeasuredOlean 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 Olean is in
Olean sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Olean's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Miller County is mostly Ozark Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Olean
Every plant below cleared Olean's own zone 6b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olean?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
Documented around Olean
Survey cells within 31 miles of Olean checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 326 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Olean
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olean. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crump DiggingsMining · 0.9 mi
- Enon ShaftMining · 1.0 mi
- Olean Lead MinesMining · 1.3 mi
- CROUCH, DOUGCAFO · 1.3 mi
- BREEZY RIDGE FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- OPIES TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Beck MineMining · 3.2 mi
- Frank R. Milliken MineMining · 3.3 mi
- Sweetwater MineMining · 3.3 mi
- Indiana Creek MineMining · 3.3 mi
- Bixby MineMining · 3.3 mi
- Howard MineMining · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olean'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 Olean.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Olean
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olean
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olean
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Olean, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Olean — CAFO (10 sites) and Mining (50 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Olean
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 Olean average
Your land is one point inside Olean
Everything above resolves to Olean as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 town 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 Olean Average
Olean Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Olean
- ●One soil character for all of Olean
- ●Frost dates read at Olean's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olean's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olean
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olean, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olean averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olean average
How we know this about Olean
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Olean’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Olean
When does frost risk typically end in Olean?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olean typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Olean?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olean typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olean?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olean sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 27, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olean?
The federal record around Olean runs heavier than most — 123 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (50), the nearest Mining record about 0.9 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 Olean?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olean's scale — its 6b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olean'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 Olean’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Olean's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olean's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olean's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 10 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olean, the closest Mining record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olean's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Olean sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Olean checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Olean's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Miller County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Miller 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 Miller County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olean's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olean you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.9 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 Olean-wide figureread your own land →
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