Winona, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Winona, 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 Winona 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 Winona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winona — the short answer
Winona, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- 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 Winona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winona's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winona
Each reading below is measured for Winona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinona runs about 212 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
MeasuredWinona 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 Winona is in
Winona sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shannon County.
What Grows in Winona
Every plant below cleared Winona's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winona?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Winona
Survey cells within 31 miles of Winona checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 264 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Winona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BREWER'S AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- STAR FOODS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CUBE EXPRESS STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- T27N R03W 18CBNitrate · 1500 ft
- WINONA COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WINONA 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1495Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- T27N R03W 18BDC2Nitrate · 2500 ft
- MIKES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- T27N R03W 18BDB1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- FORMER MONROE'S SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- T27N R03W 18BBA1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winona'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 Winona.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Winona
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winona, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winona — Nitrate (60 sites) and Mining (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
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 well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Winona
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 Winona average
Your land is one point inside Winona
Everything above resolves to Winona 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 Winona Average
Winona Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Winona
- ●One soil character for all of Winona
- ●Frost dates read at Winona's scale: Apr 2 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winona's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winona, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winona average
How we know this about Winona
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 Winona’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 Winona
When does frost risk typically end in Winona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winona typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Winona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winona typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winona sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 17, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winona?
The federal record around Winona is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Winona?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winona's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winona'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 Winona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Winona's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,436 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Oct 31 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winona's boundary and the 2,436 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winona's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Winona 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 Winona's 2,436 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shannon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shannon 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 Shannon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winona's 2,436 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,436 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 Winona-wide figureread your own land →
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