Atchison County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Atchison County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Atchison County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Atchison County — the short answer
Atchison County, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 276K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 276K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6a is Atchison County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atchison County's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Atchison County
Across a year, Atchison County accumulates about 3,659 growing degree days above 50°F, about 174 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 33 of Kansas’s 105 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Atchison County
Across Atchison County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Pawnee, Shelby, and Wymore are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
35%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Atchison County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Atchison County as moderately well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 30% well drained, 9% somewhat poorly drained.
Pawnee is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Shelby (14%) and Wymore (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Atchison County
Each reading below is measured for Atchison County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Atchison County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Atchison County runs about pH 5.9–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAtchison County runs about 214 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 County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 County is in
Atchison County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Atchison County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Atchison County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 214-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Atchison County?
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 Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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.
Documented around Atchison County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Atchison County
USGS estimates 170,885 lb of Glyphosate on Atchison County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (115,981 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (78,902 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Atchison County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Atchison County — 201 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Atchison County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Atchison County
Closest first, across Atchison County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06S 18E 13DAC 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 06S 19E 07BBB 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 05S 19E 32DAD 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 06S 18E 12CC 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- LANCASTER OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 06S 18E 23AAB 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 06S 19E 23BCA 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- ATCHISON TUBULAR SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- 05S 19E 28BBC 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- USD #377Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 07S 19E 06ADD 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Atchison County'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 County.
Total Sites
201
across Atchison County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Atchison County
Severity Distribution
across Atchison County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atchison County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 116 sites across Atchison County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 County
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 County average
Your land is one point inside Atchison County
Everything above resolves to Atchison County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 276K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Atchison County Average
Atchison County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Atchison County
- ●One soil character for all of Atchison County
- ●Frost dates read at Atchison County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atchison County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Atchison County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atchison County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atchison County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atchison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atchison County average
How we know this about Atchison County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Atchison County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Atchison County
When does frost risk typically end in Atchison County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atchison County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Atchison County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atchison County sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 19, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atchison County?
The federal record around Atchison County is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (116), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Atchison County's scale — its 6a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atchison County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Kansas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Atchison County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Atchison County's own scale — its own ~214-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 201 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atchison County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Atchison County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Atchison CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 201 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Atchison County's boundary and the 275,951 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Atchison County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Atchison County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Atchison County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Atchison County — the ~214 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atchison County's 275,951 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 201 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Atchison Countyread your own land →