Sedgwick County, in Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Sedgwick County lies within the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Sedgwick County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sedgwick County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Sedgwick County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sedgwick County — the short answer
Sedgwick County, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 351K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 351K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5b is Sedgwick County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sedgwick County's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sedgwick County
Across a year, Sedgwick County accumulates about 2,694 growing degree days above 50°F, about 862 more than the middle Colorado county — ahead of 49 of Colorado’s 64 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Sedgwick County
Across Sedgwick County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Richfield, Rago, and Kuma are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sedgwick County
The USDA soil survey maps 74% of Sedgwick County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 17% excessively drained, 4% somewhat poorly drained.
Richfield is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Rago (17%) and Kuma (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Sedgwick County
Each reading below is measured for Sedgwick County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Sedgwick County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Sedgwick County runs about pH 7.0–7.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredSedgwick County runs about 178 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSedgwick County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Sedgwick County is in
Sedgwick County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Sedgwick County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sedgwick County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 178-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile.
Is it too late to plant in Sedgwick County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What gets applied to farmland in Sedgwick County
USGS estimates 217,510 lb of Glyphosate on Sedgwick County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (75,710 lb) and Atrazine (70,473 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Sedgwick County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sedgwick County — 78 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Sedgwick County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Sedgwick County
Closest first, across Sedgwick County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 277CAFO · 3.4 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 24CAFO · 4.6 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 118CAFO · 5.3 mi
- SB01104509CCC NAWQA 23Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- CDOT Ovid MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Union Pacific RailroadUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Klugs ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Silver Eagle Body ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- Grainland Co-Op Elevator IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 117CAFO · 6.5 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 22CAFO · 6.5 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 25CAFO · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sedgwick County'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 Sedgwick County.
Total Sites
78
across Sedgwick County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Sedgwick County
Severity Distribution
across Sedgwick County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sedgwick County, two things run higher than the national average across Sedgwick County — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sedgwick County
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 Sedgwick County average
Your land is one point inside Sedgwick County
Everything above resolves to Sedgwick County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 351K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Sedgwick County Average
Sedgwick County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sedgwick County
- ●One soil character for all of Sedgwick County
- ●Frost dates read at Sedgwick County's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sedgwick County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sedgwick County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sedgwick County, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sedgwick County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sedgwick County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sedgwick County average
How we know this about Sedgwick County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Sedgwick County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sedgwick County
When does frost risk typically end in Sedgwick County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sedgwick County typically lands around Apr 23, 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 May 14.
How long is the growing season in Sedgwick County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sedgwick County sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 4, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sedgwick County?
The federal record around Sedgwick County shows 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest CAFO record about 3.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Sedgwick County's scale — its 5b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sedgwick County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Colorado's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Sedgwick County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Sedgwick County's own scale — its own ~178-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 78 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sedgwick County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sedgwick County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sedgwick CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 78 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest CAFO record about 3.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sedgwick County's boundary and the 350,746 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sedgwick County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sedgwick County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Sedgwick County — the ~178 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sedgwick County's 350,746 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 78 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Sedgwick Countyread your own land →