Arkansas City, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Arkansas City, 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 Arkansas City 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 Arkansas City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arkansas City — the short answer
Arkansas City, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Arkansas City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arkansas City's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arkansas City
Each reading below is measured for Arkansas City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArkansas City runs about 228 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
MeasuredArkansas City 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 Arkansas City is in
Arkansas City sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Arkansas City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cowley County is mostly Flint Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arkansas City
Every plant below cleared Arkansas City's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arkansas City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Arkansas City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arkansas City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARTINS CONOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- E-Z MART #288Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- KLICK'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ARKANSAS CITY MEMORIAL HOSPITAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HOP'S EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AFFORDABLE TIRE & AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #1984Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #1789Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CURRENT AIRCRAFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AT&SF RAILWAY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DOWNTOWN AUTO BODY & TRANS. REUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arkansas City'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 Arkansas City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arkansas City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arkansas City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arkansas City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arkansas City — Nitrate (88 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Arkansas City
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 Arkansas City average
Your land is one point inside Arkansas City
Everything above resolves to Arkansas City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Arkansas City Average
Arkansas City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Arkansas City
- ●One soil character for all of Arkansas City
- ●Frost dates read at Arkansas City's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arkansas City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arkansas City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arkansas City, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arkansas City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arkansas City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arkansas City average
How we know this about Arkansas City
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 Arkansas City’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 Arkansas City
When does frost risk typically end in Arkansas City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arkansas City typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Arkansas City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arkansas City typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arkansas City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arkansas City sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 27, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arkansas City?
The federal record around Arkansas City is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Arkansas City?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arkansas City's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arkansas City'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 Arkansas City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arkansas City's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,963 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arkansas City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arkansas City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 10 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arkansas City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arkansas City's boundary and the 5,963 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arkansas City sits in the Central Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arkansas City's 5,963 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cowley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cowley 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 Cowley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arkansas City's 5,963 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arkansas City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,963 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Arkansas City-wide figureread your own land →
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