Paynesville, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paynesville, 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 Paynesville 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 Paynesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paynesville — the short answer
Paynesville, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 168 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 168 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 Paynesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paynesville's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paynesville
Each reading below is measured for Paynesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaynesville runs about 223 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
MeasuredPaynesville 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 Paynesville is in
Paynesville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paynesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Paynesville
Every plant below cleared Paynesville's own zone 6a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paynesville?
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 6 — 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 Paynesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paynesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIKE CO R-III SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ANNADA ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- LOWELL CAPPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- CLARENCE CANNON NATL WILDLIFE REFUGUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- SMW SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- JESSIE MAGEE TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- SCOTTYS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- BROWNS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- FASTLANE EOLIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- EOLIA MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- CLARKSVILLE 66Underground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- T53N R01E 16BAB1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paynesville'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 Paynesville.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Paynesville
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paynesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paynesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paynesville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Paynesville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Paynesville
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 Paynesville average
Your land is one point inside Paynesville
Everything above resolves to Paynesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 168 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 Paynesville Average
Paynesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Paynesville
- ●One soil character for all of Paynesville
- ●Frost dates read at Paynesville's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paynesville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paynesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paynesville, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paynesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paynesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paynesville average
How we know this about Paynesville
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 Paynesville’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 Paynesville
When does frost risk typically end in Paynesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paynesville 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 Paynesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paynesville 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paynesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paynesville sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paynesville?
The federal record around Paynesville is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 miles 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 Paynesville?
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 Paynesville's scale — its 6a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paynesville'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 Paynesville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paynesville's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 168 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paynesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paynesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paynesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paynesville's boundary and the 168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paynesville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paynesville's 168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paynesville's 168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paynesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 168 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 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 Paynesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriPaynesville sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides