White Branch, 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.
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 White Branch, 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 White Branch 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 White Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Branch — the short answer
White Branch, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 318 acres of town.
- 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 318 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 White Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Branch's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Branch
Each reading below is measured for White Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Branch runs about 226 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
MeasuredWhite Branch 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 White Branch is in
White Branch sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at White Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in White Branch
Every plant below cleared White Branch's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Branch?
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 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 6 — 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 White Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T40N R22W 22CBD1Nitrate · 650 ft
- OSAGE MINI MART1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WARSAW BULLSEYEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DX BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WARSAW R-10 SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BUCKLEY ANTIQUESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BULK PLANT & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SKELGAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #3716Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GERKEN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NATIONAL CONCEPTS INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MFA EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Branch'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 White Branch.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of White Branch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Branch, Mining runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of White Branch. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 White Branch
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 White Branch average
Your land is one point inside White Branch
Everything above resolves to White Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 318 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 White Branch Average
White Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across White Branch
- ●One soil character for all of White Branch
- ●Frost dates read at White Branch's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Branch's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Branch, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Branch average
How we know this about White Branch
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 White Branch’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 White Branch
When does frost risk typically end in White Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Branch 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 White Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Branch 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 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Branch sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 23, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Branch?
The federal record around White Branch is a meaningful one — 49 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Nitrate 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 White Branch?
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 White Branch's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Branch'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 White Branch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Branch's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 318 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 6 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Branch, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Branch's boundary and the 318 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Branch's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Branch's 318 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 White Branch's 318 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 318 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 White Branch-wide figureread your own land →
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