Purcell, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Purcell, 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 Purcell 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 Purcell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Purcell — the short answer
Purcell, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 278 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- 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
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 278 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 7a is Purcell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Purcell's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Purcell
Each reading below is measured for Purcell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPurcell runs about 231 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
MeasuredPurcell sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Purcell is in
Purcell sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Purcell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in Purcell
Every plant below cleared Purcell's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Purcell?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Purcell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Purcell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T29N R32W 17AAA1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Cornucopi MineMining · 2300 ft
- T29N R32W 17BDA1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- DEBBIE SIMPSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Anna Linda MineMining · 2500 ft
- Hoo Hoo MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Express MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Unknown - Zn/PbMining · 0.6 mi
- Buzzard MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Hill Top MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Lone Star MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Lucky Tiger MineMining · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Purcell'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 Purcell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Purcell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Purcell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Purcell, Mining runs higher than the national average — 813 sites within ~10 miles of Purcell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Purcell
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 Purcell average
Your land is one point inside Purcell
Everything above resolves to Purcell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 278 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 Purcell Average
Purcell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Purcell
- ●One soil character for all of Purcell
- ●Frost dates read at Purcell's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Purcell's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Purcell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Purcell, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Purcell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Purcell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Purcell average
How we know this about Purcell
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 Purcell’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 Purcell
When does frost risk typically end in Purcell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Purcell typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Purcell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Purcell 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 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Purcell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Purcell sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Purcell?
The federal record around Purcell runs heavier than most — 1,095 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (813), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Purcell?
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 Purcell's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Purcell'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 Purcell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Purcell's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 278 acres it covers and 1,095 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Purcell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Purcell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,095 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Purcell, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Purcell's boundary and the 278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Purcell's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Purcell's 278 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Purcell's 278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Purcell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 278 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Purcell-wide figureread your own land →
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