Kane County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kane County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kane 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 Kane County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kane County — the short answer
Kane County, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 332K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 332K 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 Kane County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kane County's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kane County
Across a year, Kane County accumulates about 2,676 growing degree days above 50°F, about 707 fewer than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 7 of Illinois’s 102 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 Kane County
Across Kane County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Drummer, Kidami, and Octagon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
51%
Hydric soils
32%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kane County
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Kane County as moderately well drained — but another 61% drains differently: 28% poorly drained, 16% well drained.
Drummer is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Kidami (6%) and Octagon (5%).
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 Kane County
Each reading below is measured for Kane 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 Kane County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Kane County runs about pH 6.2–6.7, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 32% of Kane County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredKane County runs about 193 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
The kind of country Kane County is in
Kane County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Corn Belt Plains (94%) and Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains (7%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Kane County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kane County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 193-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 Illinois profile.
Is it too late to plant in Kane County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Kane County
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Kane County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly679 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kane County
USGS estimates 122,370 lb of Glyphosate on Kane County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (59,419 lb) and Atrazine (56,116 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 Kane County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kane County — 1,960 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 21 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Kane County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kane County
Closest first, across Kane County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WASCO SDPFAS · 1.0 mi
- 40N 7E-16.6e1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- At&T Idb36F430 Clli:Wascil00010Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Mather PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Moravcik George MUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- White Brothers Trucking CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Western Trail Outpost MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 40N7E-11.6fNitrate · 1.9 mi
- Du Page Pump IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Campton TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- KENS CUSTOM CORVETTES AND AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CARDINAL INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kane 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 Kane County.
Sources Checked
across Kane County
Severity Distribution
across Kane County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kane County, two things run higher than the national average across Kane County — Toxics Release Inventory (174 sites) and PFAS (17 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Kane 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 Kane County average
Your land is one point inside Kane County
Everything above resolves to Kane County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 332K 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 Kane County Average
Kane County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kane County
- ●One soil character for all of Kane County
- ●Frost dates read at Kane County's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kane County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kane County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kane County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kane County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kane County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kane County average
How we know this about Kane 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 Kane County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kane County
When does frost risk typically end in Kane County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kane County typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Kane County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kane County sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 9, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kane County?
The federal record around Kane County runs heavier than most — 1,960 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (904), the nearest PFAS record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Kane County's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kane 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 Illinois's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Kane County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kane County's own scale — its own ~193-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,960 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kane County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kane County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kane CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,960 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kane County's boundary and the 332,391 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Kane County spans, Central Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kane County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kane County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Kane County — the ~193 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 Kane County's 332,391 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,960 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 Kane Countyread your own land →