Stotesbury, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Stotesbury, 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 Stotesbury 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 Stotesbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stotesbury — the short answer
Stotesbury, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 70 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 70 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 Stotesbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stotesbury's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stotesbury
Each reading below is measured for Stotesbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStotesbury runs about 225 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
MeasuredStotesbury 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 Stotesbury is in
Stotesbury sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Stotesbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vernon County.
What Grows in Stotesbury
Every plant below cleared Stotesbury's own zone 6b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stotesbury?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Stotesbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stotesbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T37N R33W 28CDC1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 24S 25E 01AD 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- RICHARDS MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- T38N R33W 33BANitrate · 4.2 mi
- T37N R32W 31ADA1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- T37N R32W 32BAC1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- T37N R32W 16BAD1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 24S 25E 28A 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- FORKNER FARMS SWINE FACILITYCAFO · 6.6 mi
- TOUGH OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- T37N R32W 15AAC1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- T36N R32W 30ACA1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stotesbury'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 Stotesbury.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Stotesbury
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stotesbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stotesbury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stotesbury, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Stotesbury. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Stotesbury
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 Stotesbury average
Your land is one point inside Stotesbury
Everything above resolves to Stotesbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 70 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 Stotesbury Average
Stotesbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Stotesbury
- ●One soil character for all of Stotesbury
- ●Frost dates read at Stotesbury's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stotesbury's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stotesbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stotesbury, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stotesbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stotesbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stotesbury average
How we know this about Stotesbury
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 Stotesbury’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 Stotesbury
When does frost risk typically end in Stotesbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stotesbury typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Stotesbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stotesbury typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stotesbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stotesbury sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stotesbury?
The federal record around Stotesbury shows 60 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles 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 Stotesbury?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stotesbury's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stotesbury'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 Stotesbury’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stotesbury's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 70 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stotesbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stotesbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 7 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stotesbury, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stotesbury's boundary and the 70 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stotesbury's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stotesbury's 70 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vernon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vernon 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 Vernon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stotesbury's 70 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stotesbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 70 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Stotesbury-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriStotesbury sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.