Cedar Vale, 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.
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 Cedar Vale, 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 Cedar Vale 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 Cedar Vale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedar Vale — the short answer
Cedar Vale, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 483 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 483 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 Cedar Vale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Vale's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Vale
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Vale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCedar Vale runs about 226 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
MeasuredCedar Vale 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 Cedar Vale is in
Cedar Vale sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cedar Vale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chautauqua County is mostly Cross Timbers. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cedar Vale
Every plant below cleared Cedar Vale's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Vale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 9 — 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 Cedar Vale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Vale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USD #285Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CEDAR VALE REGIONAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BOBS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHORT STOP, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 34S 08E 05ADD 01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 35S 08E 03CBC 01Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 34S 09E 33CCB 01Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 33S 09E 09BBC 01Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- 33S 07E 14ADC 01Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 34S 07E 22CCC 01Nitrate · 8.9 mi
Measured from Cedar Vale'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 Cedar Vale.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Vale
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Vale
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 Cedar Vale average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Vale
Everything above resolves to Cedar Vale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 483 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 Cedar Vale Average
Cedar Vale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cedar Vale
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Vale
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Vale's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Vale's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Vale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Vale, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Vale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Vale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Vale average
How we know this about Cedar Vale
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 Cedar Vale’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 Cedar Vale
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Vale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Vale 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 Cedar Vale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Vale typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Vale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Vale sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 26, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Vale?
The federal record around Cedar Vale is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedar Vale?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Vale's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Vale'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 Cedar Vale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Vale's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 483 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Vale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedar Vale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 9 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Vale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Vale's boundary and the 483 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cedar Vale sits in the Flint Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Vale's 483 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chautauqua County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chautauqua 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 Chautauqua County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Vale's 483 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Vale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 483 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cedar Vale-wide figureread your own land →
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