Tightwad, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Tightwad, 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 Tightwad 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 Tightwad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tightwad — the short answer
Tightwad, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 639 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 639 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 Tightwad's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tightwad's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tightwad
Each reading below is measured for Tightwad itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTightwad runs about 224 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
MeasuredTightwad 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 Tightwad is in
Tightwad sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tightwad's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Tightwad
Every plant below cleared Tightwad's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tightwad?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 6 — 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 Tightwad
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tightwad. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITEMAN AFB FOXTROT-8Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MOHE-9Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- R & B SPORTS SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- TEBO CREEK LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- T41N R24W 20CCA1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- BUCKSAW POINT RESORT & MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- LONG SHOAL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- T41N R24W 06CAC1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- HARRY S TRUMAN STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB INDIA-7Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- T40N R24W 29DAD1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- USACE HARRY S TRUMAN LAKE PROJECTBrownfields · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tightwad'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 Tightwad.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Tightwad
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tightwad
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tightwad
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tightwad, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Tightwad. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tightwad
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 Tightwad average
Your land is one point inside Tightwad
Everything above resolves to Tightwad as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 639 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 Tightwad Average
Tightwad Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tightwad
- ●One soil character for all of Tightwad
- ●Frost dates read at Tightwad's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tightwad's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tightwad
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tightwad, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tightwad averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tightwad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tightwad average
How we know this about Tightwad
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 Tightwad’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 Tightwad
When does frost risk typically end in Tightwad?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tightwad 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 Tightwad?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tightwad typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tightwad?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tightwad sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tightwad?
The federal record around Tightwad is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Tightwad?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tightwad's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tightwad'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 Tightwad’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tightwad's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 639 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tightwad's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tightwad's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 6 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tightwad, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tightwad's boundary and the 639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tightwad's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tightwad's 639 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tightwad's 639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tightwad you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 639 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Tightwad-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriTightwad sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides