Ellis County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ellis County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ellis 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 Ellis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ellis County — the short answer
Ellis County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 576K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 576K 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 6b is Ellis County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellis County's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ellis County
Across a year, Ellis County accumulates about 3,664 growing degree days above 50°F, about 169 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 34 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 Ellis County
Across Ellis County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Harney, Armo, and Roxbury are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.7, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
50%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ellis County
The USDA soil survey maps 88% of Ellis County as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 7% moderately well drained, 2% excessively drained.
Harney is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Armo (16%) and Roxbury (8%).
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 Ellis County
Each reading below is measured for Ellis 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 Ellis County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Ellis County runs about pH 6.7–7.7, 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
MeasuredEllis County runs about 197 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEllis County 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 Ellis County is in
Ellis County sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Ellis County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ellis County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 197-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 Ellis 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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Ellis County
- monarch butterfly3,973 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ellis County
USGS estimates 128,839 lb of Glyphosate on Ellis County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (56,125 lb) and 2,4-d (50,975 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 Ellis County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ellis County — 500 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Superfund sites (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 Ellis 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 Ellis County
Closest first, across Ellis County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- I-70 TRUCK RPRBrownfields · 350 ft
- HORIZON EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- HAYS LIVESTOCK MARKET CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HAYS MACK SALES & SVCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CARRICO IMPLEMENT CO INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CARRICO COLORADO, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LEWIS AUTOMOTIVE GROUP INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JAMES LINCOLN-MERCURY-Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MIRASTAR #64043Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #664Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- LEWIS PAINT & COLLISION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TEXACO 54 107 026Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellis 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 Ellis County.
Total Sites
500
across Ellis County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Ellis County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellis County, two things run higher than the national average across Ellis County — Nitrate (268 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ellis 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 Ellis County average
Your land is one point inside Ellis County
Everything above resolves to Ellis County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 576K 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 Ellis County Average
Ellis County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ellis County
- ●One soil character for all of Ellis County
- ●Frost dates read at Ellis County's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellis County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ellis County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellis County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellis County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellis County average
How we know this about Ellis 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 Ellis County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ellis County
When does frost risk typically end in Ellis County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellis County typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
How long is the growing season in Ellis County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellis County sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 11, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellis County?
The federal record around Ellis County is a meaningful one — 500 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (268), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ellis County's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellis 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 Ellis County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ellis County's own scale — its own ~197-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 500 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellis County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellis County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ellis CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 500 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Ellis County's boundary and the 575,957 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ellis County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ellis County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ellis 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 Ellis County — the ~197 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 Ellis County's 575,957 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 500 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 Ellis Countyread your own land →