Centropolis, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Centropolis, 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 Centropolis 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 Centropolis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Centropolis — the short answer
Centropolis, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 214 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 214 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 Centropolis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Centropolis's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Centropolis
Each reading below is measured for Centropolis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCentropolis 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
MeasuredCentropolis 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 Centropolis is in
Centropolis sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Centropolis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Centropolis
Every plant below cleared Centropolis'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 Centropolis?
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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Centropolis
Survey cells within 31 miles of Centropolis checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 429 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Centropolis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Centropolis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GILLILAND TIRE & ENGINEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 15S 18E 24CC 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 15S 19E 17CD 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- FORBES (EX) ATLAS FAC S-2Superfund · 2.1 mi
- 15S 19E 21B 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 15S 18E 34BAA 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 15S 18E 15CD 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 15S 19E 23CAB 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 15S 18E 01AA 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 14S 19E 32CCC 01Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- BUTCHS TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- 14S 18E 34CC 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Centropolis'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 Centropolis.
Total Sites
172
within ~10 miles of Centropolis
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Centropolis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Centropolis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Centropolis, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Centropolis. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Centropolis
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 Centropolis average
Your land is one point inside Centropolis
Everything above resolves to Centropolis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 214 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 town 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 Centropolis Average
Centropolis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Centropolis
- ●One soil character for all of Centropolis
- ●Frost dates read at Centropolis's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Centropolis's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Centropolis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Centropolis, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Centropolis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Centropolis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Centropolis average
How we know this about Centropolis
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Centropolis’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Centropolis
When does frost risk typically end in Centropolis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Centropolis 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 Centropolis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Centropolis 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 Centropolis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Centropolis 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 Centropolis?
The federal record around Centropolis is a meaningful one — 172 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Centropolis?
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 Centropolis's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Centropolis'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 Centropolis’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Centropolis's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 214 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Centropolis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Centropolis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Centropolis, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Centropolis's boundary and the 214 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 Centropolis's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Centropolis checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Centropolis's 214 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Centropolis's 214 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Centropolis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 214 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Centropolis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasCentropolis sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides