Pickering, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Pickering, 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 Pickering 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 Pickering — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pickering — the short answer
Pickering, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 109 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 5b is Pickering's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pickering's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pickering
Each reading below is measured for Pickering itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPickering runs about 201 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
MeasuredPickering sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Pickering is in
Pickering sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pickering's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nodaway County.
What Grows in Pickering
Every plant below cleared Pickering's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pickering?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Pickering
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pickering. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T65N R35W 31DCD1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- MARYVILLE MO WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- RONNEBAUM INC DBA FLENTIESBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- MT ALVERNO CONVENT & ACADEMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- MARYVILLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #811Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- IMPERIAL SUPER GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- NW TAXI & DETAIL SHOP FORMER FLOREA CONOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- NATIONAL GUARD 1ST BN, 129TH FAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- T66N R35W 02DDNitrate · 6.9 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC WMO7Brownfields · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pickering'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 Pickering.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Pickering
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pickering
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pickering
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pickering, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Pickering. 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 Pickering
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 Pickering average
Your land is one point inside Pickering
Everything above resolves to Pickering as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 109 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 Pickering Average
Pickering Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pickering
- ●One soil character for all of Pickering
- ●Frost dates read at Pickering's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pickering's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pickering
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pickering, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pickering averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pickering — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pickering average
How we know this about Pickering
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 Pickering’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 Pickering
When does frost risk typically end in Pickering?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pickering typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Pickering?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pickering typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pickering?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pickering sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pickering?
The federal record around Pickering shows 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.9 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 Pickering?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pickering's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pickering'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 Pickering’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pickering's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pickering's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pickering's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pickering, the closest Nitrate record about 4.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pickering's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pickering's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pickering's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nodaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nodaway 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 Nodaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pickering's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pickering you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 4.9 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 Pickering-wide figureread your own land →