Sibley, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sibley, 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 Sibley 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 Sibley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sibley — the short answer
Sibley, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 668 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 668 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 Sibley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sibley's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sibley
Each reading below is measured for Sibley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSibley runs about 218 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
MeasuredSibley 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 Sibley is in
Sibley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sibley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jackson County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sibley
Every plant below cleared Sibley's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sibley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Sibley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sibley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SIBLEY GENERATING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SIBLEY GENERATING STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- JACKSON COUNTY PWSD 16PFAS · 1.1 mi
- T50N R30W 11CNitrate · 1.4 mi
- T51N R29W 33DAB1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- THRIFTWAY PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1093Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HAPPY DAYS 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SHELL FOODMART #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MAC'S KERR/MCGEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CARSTAR CARRENDER COLLISIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sibley'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 Sibley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sibley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sibley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sibley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sibley — Nitrate (70 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Sibley
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 Sibley average
Your land is one point inside Sibley
Everything above resolves to Sibley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 668 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 Sibley Average
Sibley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sibley
- ●One soil character for all of Sibley
- ●Frost dates read at Sibley's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sibley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sibley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sibley, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sibley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sibley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sibley average
How we know this about Sibley
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 Sibley’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 Sibley
When does frost risk typically end in Sibley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sibley typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Sibley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sibley typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sibley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sibley sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 20, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sibley?
The federal record around Sibley is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Sibley?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sibley's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sibley'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 Sibley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sibley's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 668 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sibley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sibley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 3 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sibley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sibley's boundary and the 668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sibley sits in the Western Corn Belt 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 Sibley's 668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sibley's 668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sibley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Sibley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriSibley sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides