Skidmore, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Skidmore, 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 Skidmore 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 Skidmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Skidmore — the short answer
Skidmore, Missouri: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 213 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 213 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 5b is Skidmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Skidmore's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Skidmore
Each reading below is measured for Skidmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSkidmore runs about 203 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
MeasuredSkidmore sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Skidmore is in
Skidmore sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Skidmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nodaway County.
What Grows in Skidmore
Every plant below cleared Skidmore's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Skidmore?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 26 — 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 Skidmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Skidmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUMY OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SKIDMORE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- T63N R37W 09CCB1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- FAIRFAX COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- NODAWAY-HOLT R-VII SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- PREVIOUSLY CIAK'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- T62N R37W 09ABC1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- T62N R37W 10ABA1Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- ANR PIPELINE CO MAITLAND COMPRESSORUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- ADVANCED PORK SYSTEMS - KCAFO · 8.6 mi
- T64N R38W 18ACD1Nitrate · 9.5 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Skidmore'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 Skidmore.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Skidmore
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Skidmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Skidmore
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Skidmore
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 Skidmore average
Your land is one point inside Skidmore
Everything above resolves to Skidmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 213 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 Skidmore Average
Skidmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Skidmore
- ●One soil character for all of Skidmore
- ●Frost dates read at Skidmore's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Skidmore's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Skidmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Skidmore, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Skidmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Skidmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Skidmore average
How we know this about Skidmore
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 Skidmore’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 Skidmore
When does frost risk typically end in Skidmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Skidmore 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 Skidmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Skidmore typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Skidmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Skidmore sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Skidmore?
The federal record around Skidmore is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Skidmore?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Skidmore's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Skidmore'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 Skidmore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Skidmore's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 213 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Skidmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Skidmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 26 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Skidmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Skidmore's boundary and the 213 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Skidmore'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 Skidmore's 213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nodaway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nodaway 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 Nodaway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Skidmore's 213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Skidmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 213 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 Skidmore-wide figureread your own land →