Warsaw, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Warsaw, 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 Warsaw 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 Warsaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Warsaw — the short answer
Warsaw, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- 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 6b is Warsaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warsaw's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warsaw
Each reading below is measured for Warsaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarsaw 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
MeasuredWarsaw 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 Warsaw is in
Warsaw sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Warsaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Warsaw
Every plant below cleared Warsaw'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 Warsaw?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Warsaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warsaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 1577Brownfields · 750 ft
- TEMP STOP #101Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MFA EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3716Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GERKEN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OSAGE MINI MART1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WARSAW BULLSEYEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DX BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BULK PLANT & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SKELGAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BUCKLEY ANTIQUESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NATIONAL CONCEPTS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warsaw'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 Warsaw.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Warsaw
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warsaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warsaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warsaw, Mining runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Warsaw. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Warsaw
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 Warsaw average
Your land is one point inside Warsaw
Everything above resolves to Warsaw 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 Warsaw Average
Warsaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Warsaw
- ●One soil character for all of Warsaw
- ●Frost dates read at Warsaw's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warsaw's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warsaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warsaw, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warsaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warsaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warsaw average
How we know this about Warsaw
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 Warsaw’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 Warsaw
When does frost risk typically end in Warsaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warsaw typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Warsaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warsaw typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warsaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warsaw sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 22, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warsaw?
The federal record around Warsaw is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Brownfields 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 Warsaw?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Warsaw's scale — its 6b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warsaw'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 Warsaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Warsaw's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,596 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warsaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warsaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 5 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warsaw, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warsaw's boundary and the 1,596 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 Warsaw's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Warsaw's 1,596 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warsaw's 1,596 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warsaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,596 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Warsaw-wide figureread your own land →
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