Hodgeman County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hodgeman County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hodgeman County — the short answer
Hodgeman County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 550K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 550K 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 Hodgeman County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hodgeman County's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hodgeman County
Across a year, Hodgeman County accumulates about 3,817 growing degree days above 50°F, about 16 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 50 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 Hodgeman County
Across Hodgeman County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Harney, Penden, and Roxbury are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
61%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hodgeman County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Hodgeman County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat excessively drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Harney is the most extensive named soil at 46% of mapped acres, then Penden (17%) and Roxbury (7%).
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 Hodgeman County
Each reading below is measured for Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County runs about pH 6.7–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHodgeman County runs about 201 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
MeasuredHodgeman 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 Hodgeman County is in
Hodgeman County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (91%) and High Plains (9%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Hodgeman County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hodgeman County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 201-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 Hodgeman County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What gets applied to farmland in Hodgeman County
USGS estimates 195,066 lb of Glyphosate on Hodgeman County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (111,285 lb) and 2,4-d (65,945 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 Hodgeman County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hodgeman County — 198 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County
Closest first, across Hodgeman County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JETMORE SUPPLYBrownfields · 950 ft
- CIRCLE K STORES, INC. 2721603Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 23S 24W 01AAC 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 23S 23W 06B 01Nitrate · 1800 ft
- A #1 ALTERNATOR & STARTER SVCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JIM WHIPPLE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- J&T VENTURE DBA NUSSER FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JETMORE CITY OFBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 23S 23W 06CAB 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 23S 23W 06 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 23S 23W 06CBD 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- ADM GRAIN CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County.
Total Sites
198
across Hodgeman County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Hodgeman County
Severity Distribution
across Hodgeman County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hodgeman County, two things run higher than the national average across Hodgeman County — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (170 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County average
Your land is one point inside Hodgeman County
Everything above resolves to Hodgeman County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 550K 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 Hodgeman County Average
Hodgeman County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hodgeman County
- ●One soil character for all of Hodgeman County
- ●Frost dates read at Hodgeman County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hodgeman County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hodgeman County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hodgeman County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hodgeman County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hodgeman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hodgeman County average
How we know this about Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hodgeman County
When does frost risk typically end in Hodgeman County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hodgeman County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Hodgeman County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hodgeman County sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hodgeman County?
The federal record around Hodgeman County shows 198 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (170), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Hodgeman County's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Hodgeman County's own scale — its own ~201-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 198 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hodgeman County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hodgeman County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hodgeman CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 198 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hodgeman County's boundary and the 550,394 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hodgeman County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hodgeman 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 Hodgeman County — the ~201 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 Hodgeman County's 550,394 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 198 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 Hodgeman Countyread your own land →