White Oak, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 White Oak, 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 Oak 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 Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Oak — the short answer
White Oak, Missouri: USDA zone 7b, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 81 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 81 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 7b is White Oak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Oak's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Oak
Each reading below is measured for White Oak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Oak runs about 257 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 Oak sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Oak is in
White Oak sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at White Oak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dunklin County.
What Grows in White Oak
Every plant below cleared White Oak's own zone 7b and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Oak?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 White Oak
Survey cells within 31 miles of White Oak checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 186 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near White Oak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Oak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T20N R10E 33ACCNitrate · 2.2 mi
- T19N R09E 11DDCNitrate · 2.8 mi
- VICIOUS ENGINESBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- ABANDONED SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- HOLCOMB JUNCTION LTD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- LEON FORD FLEA MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- T & P EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- T20N R10E 06BDD1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- GEORGE LUNA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- EARL JORDANUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- ROBINSON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Oak'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 Oak.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of White Oak
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Oak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Oak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Oak, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Oak — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in White Oak
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 Oak average
Your land is one point inside White Oak
Everything above resolves to White Oak as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 81 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 Oak Average
White Oak Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across White Oak
- ●One soil character for all of White Oak
- ●Frost dates read at White Oak's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Oak's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Oak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Oak, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Oak averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Oak average
How we know this about White Oak
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 Oak’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 Oak
When does frost risk typically end in White Oak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Oak typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in White Oak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Oak typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Oak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Oak sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 9, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Oak?
The federal record around White Oak shows 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in White Oak?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Oak's scale — its 7b band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Oak'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 Oak’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at White Oak's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 81 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Oak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Oak's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 23 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Oak, the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Oak's boundary and the 81 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Oak's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around White Oak 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 White Oak's 81 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dunklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dunklin 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 Dunklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Oak's 81 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Oak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 81 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 White Oak-wide figureread your own land →