Warrenton, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Warrenton, 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 Warrenton 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 Warrenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Warrenton — the short answer
Warrenton, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Warrenton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warrenton's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warrenton
Each reading below is measured for Warrenton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarrenton runs about 223 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
MeasuredWarrenton 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 Warrenton is in
Warrenton sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Warrenton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Warren County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Warrenton
Every plant below cleared Warrenton's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Warrenton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Warrenton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Warrenton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 258 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Warrenton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warrenton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FASTLANE CENTRALUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BEE LINE SNACK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 1 STOP SMOKE SHOPBrownfields · 750 ft
- JIFFY LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WARRENTON ARMORYBrownfields · 850 ft
- FASTLANE EASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GEORGE L. & PAMELA D. CASEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PETRO MART #22Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WALGREENS #10211Brownfields · 950 ft
- BROCK CHEV OLDS PONT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WARRENTON FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BP AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warrenton'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 Warrenton.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Warrenton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warrenton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warrenton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warrenton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Warrenton — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Warrenton
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 Warrenton average
Your land is one point inside Warrenton
Everything above resolves to Warrenton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Warrenton Average
Warrenton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Warrenton
- ●One soil character for all of Warrenton
- ●Frost dates read at Warrenton's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warrenton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warrenton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warrenton, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warrenton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warrenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warrenton average
How we know this about Warrenton
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 Warrenton’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 Warrenton
When does frost risk typically end in Warrenton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warrenton typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Warrenton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warrenton 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warrenton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warrenton sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warrenton?
The federal record around Warrenton is a meaningful one — 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Warrenton?
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 Warrenton's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warrenton'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 Warrenton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Warrenton's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,791 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warrenton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warrenton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warrenton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warrenton's boundary and the 5,791 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Warrenton sits in the Central Irregular Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Warrenton 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 Warrenton's 5,791 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warrenton's 5,791 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warrenton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,791 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Warrenton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriWarrenton sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides