Zalma, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Zalma, 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 Zalma 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 Zalma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Zalma — the short answer
Zalma, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 132 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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
- Town area
- 132 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 7a is Zalma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zalma's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Zalma
Each reading below is measured for Zalma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredZalma 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
MeasuredZalma sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Zalma is in
Zalma sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Zalma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bollinger County.
What Grows in Zalma
Every plant below cleared Zalma's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Zalma?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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.
Documented around Zalma
Survey cells within 31 miles of Zalma checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 200 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Zalma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Zalma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTT CO R-V SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ZALMA R-V SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LEMONS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MHTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- T29N R09E 14DDD1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- MEADOR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- JACKSON'S STORE (CLOSED BUS 1977)Underground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- ROGERS FARMS, INC.CAFO · 5.6 mi
- Duck CreekNitrate · 6.7 mi
- T28N R09E 32DAD3Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- DUCK CREEK WILDLIFE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- FOX PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zalma'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 Zalma.
Total Sites
24
within ~10 miles of Zalma
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Zalma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Zalma
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Zalma
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 Zalma average
Your land is one point inside Zalma
Everything above resolves to Zalma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 132 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 Zalma Average
Zalma Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Zalma
- ●One soil character for all of Zalma
- ●Frost dates read at Zalma's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zalma's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Zalma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zalma, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zalma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zalma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zalma average
How we know this about Zalma
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 Zalma’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 Zalma
When does frost risk typically end in Zalma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zalma 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 Zalma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Zalma 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 Zalma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zalma 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 Zalma?
The federal record around Zalma is light — 24 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Zalma?
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 Zalma's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zalma'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 Zalma’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Zalma's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 132 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zalma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zalma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 5 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Zalma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Zalma's boundary and the 132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Zalma's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Zalma 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 Zalma's 132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bollinger County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bollinger 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 Bollinger County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Zalma's 132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Zalma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 132 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 Zalma-wide figureread your own land →
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