Steelville, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Steelville, 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 Steelville 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 Steelville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Steelville — the short answer
Steelville, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Steelville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Steelville's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Steelville
Each reading below is measured for Steelville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSteelville runs about 193 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSteelville 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 Steelville is in
Steelville sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Steelville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Steelville
Every plant below cleared Steelville's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Steelville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Steelville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Steelville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 286 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Steelville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Steelville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHWIEDER FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- T38N R04W 34CAB1Nitrate · 600 ft
- STEELVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- STEELVILLE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RAY MATCHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- T38N R04W 34BBB1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- MPC 40Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOE HAMMONDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2648Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- EATON'S PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- T38N R04W 34CCNitrate · 2000 ft
- #100 MOBIL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Steelville'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 Steelville.
Total Sites
111
within ~10 miles of Steelville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Steelville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Steelville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Steelville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Steelville — Mining (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Steelville
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 Steelville average
Your land is one point inside Steelville
Everything above resolves to Steelville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Steelville Average
Steelville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Steelville
- ●One soil character for all of Steelville
- ●Frost dates read at Steelville's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Steelville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Steelville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Steelville, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Steelville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Steelville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Steelville average
How we know this about Steelville
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 Steelville’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 Steelville
When does frost risk typically end in Steelville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Steelville typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Steelville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Steelville typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Steelville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Steelville sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 6, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Steelville?
The federal record around Steelville is a meaningful one — 111 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Steelville?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Steelville's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Steelville'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 Steelville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Steelville's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,549 acres it covers and 111 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Steelville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Steelville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 20 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 111 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Steelville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Steelville's boundary and the 1,549 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Steelville's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Steelville 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 Steelville's 1,549 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Steelville's 1,549 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Steelville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,549 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 Steelville-wide figureread your own land →
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