Rea, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rea, 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 Rea 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 Rea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rea — the short answer
Rea, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 77 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 77 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 Rea's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rea's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rea
Each reading below is measured for Rea itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRea runs about 208 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
MeasuredRea 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 Rea is in
Rea sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rea's own centroid rather than borrowed from Andrew County.
What Grows in Rea
Every plant below cleared Rea's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rea?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Rea
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rea. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HANNAH OIL & FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- T60N R35W 11DAD1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- T61N R35W 10DAC1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- T61N R35W 28CBB1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- T61N R35W 03CDC1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- WALTON FARMS & CONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- T60N R35W 28BDC1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- T61N R33W 06DCD1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- SHOP & HOP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- LIPPARD GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- ANDREW COUNTY OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rea'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 Rea.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rea
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rea
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rea, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Rea. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Rea
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 Rea average
Your land is one point inside Rea
Everything above resolves to Rea as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 77 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 Rea Average
Rea Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rea
- ●One soil character for all of Rea
- ●Frost dates read at Rea's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rea's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rea
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rea, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rea averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rea average
How we know this about Rea
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 Rea’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 Rea
When does frost risk typically end in Rea?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rea typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Rea?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rea 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rea?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rea sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rea?
The federal record around Rea shows 38 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rea?
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 Rea's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rea'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 Rea’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rea's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 77 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rea's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rea's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 31 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rea, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rea's boundary and the 77 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rea'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 Rea's 77 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Andrew County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Andrew 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 Andrew County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rea's 77 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rea you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 77 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rea-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriRea sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides