Pierpont, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Pierpont, 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 Pierpont 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 Pierpont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pierpont — the short answer
Pierpont, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 146 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 146 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 Pierpont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pierpont's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pierpont
Each reading below is measured for Pierpont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPierpont runs about 226 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
MeasuredPierpont 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 Pierpont is in
Pierpont sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pierpont's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Boone County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pierpont
Every plant below cleared Pierpont's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pierpont?
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 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.
Documented around Pierpont
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pierpont checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 295 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pierpont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pierpont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RILEY & MCCUBBINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ROCK BRIDGE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- T47N R12W 06BAA1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- EMERY SAPP & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTO INSURANCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CONSOLIDATED WATER DISTRICT #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- COLUMBIA AREA CAREER CENTERBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- MU DERMATOLOGY AND SKIN SURGERY CENTERBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- ROCK BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- LEATHERWOOD HILLS LITTLE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BOONE COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BLUE ACRESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pierpont'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 Pierpont.
Total Sites
510
within ~10 miles of Pierpont
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pierpont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pierpont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pierpont, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 146 sites within ~10 miles of Pierpont. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pierpont
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 Pierpont average
Your land is one point inside Pierpont
Everything above resolves to Pierpont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 146 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 Pierpont Average
Pierpont Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pierpont
- ●One soil character for all of Pierpont
- ●Frost dates read at Pierpont's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pierpont's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pierpont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pierpont, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pierpont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pierpont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pierpont average
How we know this about Pierpont
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 Pierpont’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 Pierpont
When does frost risk typically end in Pierpont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pierpont 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 Pierpont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pierpont 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 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pierpont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pierpont sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 25, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pierpont?
The federal record around Pierpont is a meaningful one — 510 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (234), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pierpont?
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 Pierpont's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pierpont'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 Pierpont’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pierpont's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 146 acres it covers and 510 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pierpont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pierpont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 8 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 510 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pierpont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pierpont's boundary and the 146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pierpont sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pierpont 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 Pierpont's 146 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pierpont's 146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pierpont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 146 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Pierpont-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriPierpont sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.