Waco, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, 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 Waco, 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 Waco 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 Waco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waco — the short answer
Waco, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 164 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 164 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 7a is Waco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waco's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waco
Each reading below is measured for Waco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaco runs about 229 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
MeasuredWaco sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Waco is in
Waco sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Waco's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jasper County is mostly Ozark Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Waco
Every plant below cleared Waco's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waco?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Waco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EMPIRE MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- T29N R34W 14AAA1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Gascho MineMining · 0.6 mi
- Barnsdall #14 MineMining · 0.7 mi
- St. Louis S. and R. Co. MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Blue Rock MineMining · 0.9 mi
- St. Louis Smelting & Refining MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Freehold #4 MineMining · 1.0 mi
- Pyramid Mine North ShaftMining · 1.0 mi
- Allegheny - Western Mine North ShMining · 1.0 mi
- Pyramid Mine South ShaftMining · 1.1 mi
- Freehold No.3 MineMining · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waco'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 Waco.
Total Sites
745
within ~10 miles of Waco
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waco, Mining runs higher than the national average — 604 sites within ~10 miles of Waco. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Waco
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 Waco average
Your land is one point inside Waco
Everything above resolves to Waco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 164 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 Waco Average
Waco Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Waco
- ●One soil character for all of Waco
- ●Frost dates read at Waco's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waco's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waco, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waco average
How we know this about Waco
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 Waco’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 Waco
When does frost risk typically end in Waco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waco typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Waco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waco typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waco sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 25, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waco?
The federal record around Waco runs heavier than most — 745 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (604), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Waco?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waco's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waco'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 Waco’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Waco's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 164 acres it covers and 745 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 8 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 745 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waco's boundary and the 164 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Waco sits in the Central Irregular 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 Waco's 164 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waco's 164 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 164 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 Waco-wide figureread your own land →
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