Shelbina, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shelbina, 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 Shelbina 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 Shelbina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shelbina — the short answer
Shelbina, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Shelbina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shelbina's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shelbina
Each reading below is measured for Shelbina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShelbina runs about 209 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
MeasuredShelbina 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 Shelbina is in
Shelbina sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Shelbina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Shelbina
Every plant below cleared Shelbina's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shelbina?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 29 — 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 Shelbina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shelbina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHELBINA COUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- AYERS CO #36Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MANSUR THRELKELD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RON'S TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CARROLL'S 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1016Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HARDY OIL CO BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SHELBY STATIONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SHELBINA ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- AYERCO #36Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SIMPSON OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CERRO FLOW PRODUCTS LLC SHELBINAToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shelbina'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 Shelbina.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Shelbina
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shelbina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shelbina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shelbina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shelbina — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (18 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Shelbina
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 Shelbina average
Your land is one point inside Shelbina
Everything above resolves to Shelbina 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 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 Shelbina Average
Shelbina Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Shelbina
- ●One soil character for all of Shelbina
- ●Frost dates read at Shelbina's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shelbina's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shelbina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shelbina, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shelbina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shelbina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shelbina average
How we know this about Shelbina
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 Shelbina’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 Shelbina
When does frost risk typically end in Shelbina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shelbina 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 Shelbina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shelbina typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shelbina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shelbina sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 15, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shelbina?
The federal record around Shelbina shows 28 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Shelbina?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shelbina's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shelbina'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 Shelbina’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shelbina's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,496 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shelbina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shelbina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 29 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shelbina, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shelbina's boundary and the 1,496 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shelbina's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shelbina's 1,496 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shelbina's 1,496 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shelbina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,496 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 Shelbina-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriShelbina sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides