Puxico, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Puxico, 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 Puxico 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 Puxico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Puxico — the short answer
Puxico, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 427 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 427 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 Puxico's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Puxico's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Puxico
Each reading below is measured for Puxico itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPuxico runs about 237 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
MeasuredPuxico 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 Puxico is in
Puxico sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Puxico's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Stoddard County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Puxico
Every plant below cleared Puxico's own zone 7a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Puxico?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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.
Documented around Puxico
Survey cells within 31 miles of Puxico checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 200 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Puxico
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Puxico. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAM'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HOBB'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- HOLLOWAY GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- T27N R08E 26DCC2Nitrate · 300 ft
- T27N R08E 26DCCNitrate · 300 ft
- PUXICO R-8 SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SEMO READY MIX INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- MHTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BOOTHEEL PETROLEUM CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- B & M AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MINGO NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Puxico'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 Puxico.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Puxico
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Puxico
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Puxico
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Puxico, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Puxico. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Puxico
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 Puxico average
Your land is one point inside Puxico
Everything above resolves to Puxico as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 427 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 Puxico Average
Puxico Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Puxico
- ●One soil character for all of Puxico
- ●Frost dates read at Puxico's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Puxico's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Puxico
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Puxico, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Puxico averages can't show:
We read public map data around Puxico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Puxico average
How we know this about Puxico
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 Puxico’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 Puxico
When does frost risk typically end in Puxico?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Puxico typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Puxico?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Puxico typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Puxico?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Puxico sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Puxico?
The federal record around Puxico is light — 48 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Puxico?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Puxico's scale — its 7a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Puxico'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 Puxico’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Puxico's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 427 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Puxico's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Puxico's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 12 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Puxico, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Puxico's boundary and the 427 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Puxico sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Puxico 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 Puxico's 427 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stoddard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stoddard 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 Stoddard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Puxico's 427 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Puxico you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 427 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Puxico-wide figureread your own land →
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