Atchison, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Atchison, 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 Atchison 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 Atchison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Atchison — the short answer
Atchison, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 6b is Atchison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atchison's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atchison
Each reading below is measured for Atchison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAtchison runs about 217 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
MeasuredAtchison sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Atchison is in
Atchison sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Atchison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atchison County.
What Grows in Atchison
Every plant below cleared Atchison's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Atchison?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Atchison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Atchison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATCHISON CO2 FACILITYBrownfields · 700 ft
- MGP PROCESSING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADBrownfields · 1000 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MGPI PROCESSING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- MGPI PROCESSING INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GARY'S PIZZA DOWNING'S DRIVE-IUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE - #2812Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- QUICK STOP IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ATCHISON READY MIX PLANT 25Toxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- ANGLERS BAIT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WOOD OIL #32Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Atchison'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 Atchison.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Atchison
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Atchison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Atchison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atchison, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Atchison. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Atchison
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 Atchison average
Your land is one point inside Atchison
Everything above resolves to Atchison as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Atchison Average
Atchison Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Atchison
- ●One soil character for all of Atchison
- ●Frost dates read at Atchison's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atchison's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atchison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atchison, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atchison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atchison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atchison average
How we know this about Atchison
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 Atchison’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 Atchison
When does frost risk typically end in Atchison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atchison typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Atchison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Atchison typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Atchison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atchison sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 20, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atchison?
The federal record around Atchison is a meaningful one — 145 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Atchison?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Atchison's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atchison'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 Atchison’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Atchison's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,130 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atchison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Atchison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Atchison, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Atchison's boundary and the 5,130 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Atchison's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atchison's 5,130 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atchison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atchison 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 Atchison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atchison's 5,130 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atchison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,130 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Atchison-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasAtchison sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides