Sedalia, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sedalia, 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 Sedalia 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 Sedalia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sedalia — the short answer
Sedalia, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 6b is Sedalia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sedalia's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sedalia
Each reading below is measured for Sedalia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSedalia 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
MeasuredSedalia sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Sedalia is in
Sedalia sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sedalia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pettis County.
What Grows in Sedalia
Every plant below cleared Sedalia's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sedalia?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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.
Documented around Sedalia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sedalia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 339 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sedalia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sedalia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BREAK TIME CONVENIENCE STORE #3079Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BREAK TIME #3084Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GENERAL CONTRACTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ARMS' CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- C MART #9560Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FAV TRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CITY OF SEDALIA RIGHT-OF-WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BY FIFTY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GRACE BUCHHOLTZUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10305Brownfields · 2300 ft
- AMERICAN BAKERIES COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ADCO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sedalia'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 Sedalia.
Total Sites
227
within ~10 miles of Sedalia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
32 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sedalia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sedalia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sedalia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sedalia — CAFO (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Sedalia
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 Sedalia average
Your land is one point inside Sedalia
Everything above resolves to Sedalia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Sedalia Average
Sedalia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sedalia
- ●One soil character for all of Sedalia
- ●Frost dates read at Sedalia's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sedalia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sedalia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sedalia, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sedalia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sedalia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sedalia average
How we know this about Sedalia
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 Sedalia’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 Sedalia
When does frost risk typically end in Sedalia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sedalia typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Sedalia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sedalia typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sedalia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sedalia sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 21, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sedalia?
The federal record around Sedalia is a meaningful one — 227 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sedalia?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sedalia's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sedalia'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 Sedalia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sedalia's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,621 acres it covers and 227 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sedalia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sedalia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 4 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 227 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sedalia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sedalia's boundary and the 9,621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sedalia's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sedalia 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 Sedalia's 9,621 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pettis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pettis 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 Pettis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sedalia's 9,621 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sedalia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,621 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sedalia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriSedalia sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides