Altoona, Kansas, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Altoona, 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 Altoona 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 Altoona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Altoona — the short answer
Altoona, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 342 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- 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
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 342 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 Altoona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altoona's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altoona
Each reading below is measured for Altoona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAltoona runs about 222 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
MeasuredAltoona 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 Altoona is in
Altoona sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Altoona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wilson County.
What Grows in Altoona
Every plant below cleared Altoona's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altoona?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Altoona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altoona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLAKE STEELBrownfields · 250 ft
- REYNOLDS LUMBER AND SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HARPER'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 29S 16E 14ABB 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 30S 16E 15BCC 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- NEODESHA AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- COBALT BOATSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- COBALT BOATS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 6.2 mi
- COBALT BOATS LLCBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- W W WILSON CONST CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- RAPID WAYSBrownfields · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altoona'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 Altoona.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Altoona
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altoona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altoona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Altoona, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Altoona. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Altoona
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 Altoona average
Your land is one point inside Altoona
Everything above resolves to Altoona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 342 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 Altoona Average
Altoona Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Altoona
- ●One soil character for all of Altoona
- ●Frost dates read at Altoona's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altoona's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altoona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altoona, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altoona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altoona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altoona average
How we know this about Altoona
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 Altoona’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 Altoona
When does frost risk typically end in Altoona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altoona typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Altoona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altoona 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 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altoona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altoona sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 22, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altoona?
The federal record around Altoona is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Altoona?
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 Altoona's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altoona'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 Altoona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Altoona's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 342 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altoona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Altoona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 5 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altoona, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altoona's boundary and the 342 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Altoona's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Altoona's 342 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilson County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wilson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altoona's 342 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altoona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 342 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Altoona-wide figureread your own land →