Chicopee, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chicopee, 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 Chicopee 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 Chicopee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chicopee — the short answer
Chicopee, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- 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
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Chicopee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chicopee's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chicopee
Each reading below is measured for Chicopee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChicopee runs about 229 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
MeasuredChicopee 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 Chicopee is in
Chicopee sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chicopee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Chicopee
Every plant below cleared Chicopee's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chicopee?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (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. 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 Chicopee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chicopee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LIST & CLARK CONST. CO. (PORTABLE)Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- HOLLIDAY SAND & GRAVEL CO. PLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- EVERGY INC - PITTSBURG SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- LONESTAR MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PITTSBURG SERVICE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PITSCO MFGBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HECKERT CONSTRUCTION COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- PITTSBURG STEEL & MFG CO INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- PITTSBURG, CITY OFPFAS · 2.0 mi
- CRAWFORD CO RWD 5PFAS · 2.0 mi
- KDOT AREA 4 SHOPBrownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chicopee'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 Chicopee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chicopee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chicopee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chicopee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chicopee — Superfund (5 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Chicopee
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 Chicopee average
Your land is one point inside Chicopee
Everything above resolves to Chicopee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Chicopee Average
Chicopee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chicopee
- ●One soil character for all of Chicopee
- ●Frost dates read at Chicopee's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chicopee's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chicopee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chicopee, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chicopee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chicopee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chicopee average
How we know this about Chicopee
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 Chicopee’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 Chicopee
When does frost risk typically end in Chicopee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chicopee typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Chicopee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chicopee 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 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chicopee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chicopee sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 26, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chicopee?
The federal record around Chicopee is a meaningful one — 256 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Chicopee?
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 Chicopee's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chicopee'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 Chicopee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chicopee's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,024 acres it covers and 256 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chicopee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chicopee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 256 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chicopee, the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chicopee's boundary and the 2,024 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chicopee's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chicopee's 2,024 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chicopee's 2,024 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chicopee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,024 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 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 Chicopee-wide figureread your own land →