Rayville, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rayville, 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 Rayville 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 Rayville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rayville — the short answer
Rayville, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 211 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 211 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 Rayville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rayville's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rayville
Each reading below is measured for Rayville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRayville runs about 211 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
MeasuredRayville 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 Rayville is in
Rayville sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rayville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ray County.
What Grows in Rayville
Every plant below cleared Rayville's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rayville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Rayville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rayville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T52N R28W 10DAB1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- GREEN QUARRIES INCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- ELKHORNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- SHOEMAKER AUTO SALVAGEBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- DUNCAN'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- RICHMOND PWSPFAS · 5.9 mi
- ARNETTE ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- ARNETTE ENTERPRISES INCToxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- THUNDERBIRD WHOLESALE ELECTRICALUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- TIPPINS SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- BILL FRENCH BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1487Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rayville'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 Rayville.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Rayville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rayville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rayville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Rayville
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 Rayville average
Your land is one point inside Rayville
Everything above resolves to Rayville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 211 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 Rayville Average
Rayville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rayville
- ●One soil character for all of Rayville
- ●Frost dates read at Rayville's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rayville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rayville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rayville, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rayville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rayville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rayville average
How we know this about Rayville
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 Rayville’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 Rayville
When does frost risk typically end in Rayville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rayville typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Rayville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rayville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rayville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rayville sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rayville?
The federal record around Rayville is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Rayville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rayville's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rayville'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 Rayville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rayville's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 211 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rayville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rayville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rayville, the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rayville's boundary and the 211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rayville's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rayville's 211 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ray County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ray 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 Ray County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rayville's 211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rayville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Rayville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriRayville sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides