Comanche County, in 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Comanche County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Comanche 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 Comanche County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Comanche County — the short answer
Comanche County, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 505K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 505K 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 7a is Comanche County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Comanche County's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Comanche County
Across a year, Comanche County accumulates about 4,262 growing degree days above 50°F, about 429 more than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 102 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 Comanche County
Across Comanche County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Albion, Clark, and Shellabarger are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
43%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Comanche County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Comanche County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 9% somewhat excessively drained, 2% somewhat poorly drained.
Albion is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Clark (10%) and Shellabarger (10%).
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 Comanche County
Each reading below is measured for Comanche 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 Comanche County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Comanche County runs about pH 6.5–7.9, 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
MeasuredComanche County runs about 211 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
MeasuredComanche County 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 Comanche County is in
Comanche County sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Comanche County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Comanche County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 211-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 Comanche County?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Comanche County
- monarch butterfly5 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Comanche County
USGS estimates 34,512 lb of Glyphosate on Comanche County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (26,380 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (12,373 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 Comanche County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Comanche County — 80 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 concentrated animal feeding operation. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Comanche County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Comanche County
Closest first, across Comanche County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 33S 18W 17CDD 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 33S 19W 36DAA 01Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 34S 18W 15A 01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 34S 19W 01DDD 01Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- JAYHAWK OILFIELD SUPPLY INC COLDWATERBrownfields · 6.8 mi
- JOHNS AUTO & BODYBrownfields · 7.0 mi
- COMANCHE CO. ROAD & BRIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- KINGS CORNER 2, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- 32S 19W 14DDC 01Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- 34S 17W 16BBB 01Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- KEITH DUVALLBrownfields · 7.2 mi
- KROPF OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Comanche 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 Comanche County.
Total Sites
80
across Comanche County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
across Comanche County
Severity Distribution
across Comanche County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Comanche County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites across Comanche 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 Comanche 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 Comanche County average
Your land is one point inside Comanche County
Everything above resolves to Comanche County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 505K 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 Comanche County Average
Comanche County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Comanche County
- ●One soil character for all of Comanche County
- ●Frost dates read at Comanche County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Comanche County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Comanche County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Comanche County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Comanche County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Comanche County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Comanche County average
How we know this about Comanche 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 Comanche County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Comanche County
When does frost risk typically end in Comanche County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Comanche County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Comanche County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Comanche County sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 18, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Comanche County?
The federal record around Comanche County shows 80 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Comanche County's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Comanche 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 Comanche County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Comanche County's own scale — its own ~211-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 80 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Comanche County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Comanche County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Comanche CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 80 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Comanche County's boundary and the 504,510 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Comanche County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Comanche County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Comanche 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 Comanche County — the ~211 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 Comanche County's 504,510 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 80 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 Comanche Countyread your own land →