Rensselaer, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rensselaer, 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 Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rensselaer — the short answer
Rensselaer, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Rensselaer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rensselaer's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rensselaer
Each reading below is measured for Rensselaer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRensselaer runs about 221 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
MeasuredRensselaer 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 Rensselaer is in
Rensselaer sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rensselaer's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ralls County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rensselaer
Every plant below cleared Rensselaer's own zone 6a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rensselaer?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Rensselaer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rensselaer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SS 9632Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SHOEMEYER MFA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HULSE FAMILY FARM, LLCCAFO · 1.5 mi
- WORRELL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- M-13 HANNIBAL WEIGHT STATION B-2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BAR 6 LIVESTOCK, LLCCAFO · 2.5 mi
- MODOTBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- PARCEL 14 - OSBOURN SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CENTRAL STONE COBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- HANNIBAL MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- HANNIBAL PWSPFAS · 4.2 mi
- MARION COUNTY IMPLEMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rensselaer'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 Rensselaer.
Total Sites
184
within ~10 miles of Rensselaer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rensselaer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rensselaer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rensselaer, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rensselaer — PFAS (4 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Rensselaer
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 Rensselaer average
Your land is one point inside Rensselaer
Everything above resolves to Rensselaer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Rensselaer Average
Rensselaer Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rensselaer
- ●One soil character for all of Rensselaer
- ●Frost dates read at Rensselaer's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rensselaer's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rensselaer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rensselaer, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rensselaer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rensselaer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rensselaer average
How we know this about Rensselaer
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 Rensselaer’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 Rensselaer
When does frost risk typically end in Rensselaer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rensselaer typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Rensselaer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rensselaer typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rensselaer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rensselaer sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rensselaer?
The federal record around Rensselaer is a meaningful one — 184 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rensselaer?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rensselaer's scale — its 6a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rensselaer'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 Rensselaer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rensselaer's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,256 acres it covers and 184 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rensselaer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rensselaer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rensselaer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rensselaer's boundary and the 1,256 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rensselaer sits in the Central Irregular Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rensselaer's 1,256 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ralls County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ralls 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 Ralls County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rensselaer's 1,256 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rensselaer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,256 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rensselaer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriRensselaer sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides