Kingman County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Kingman County lies within the Wichita / South-Central Kansas (Arkansas River Lowlands) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kingman County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kingman 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 Kingman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kingman County — the short answer
Kingman County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 553K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 553K 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 Kingman County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingman County's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kingman County
Across a year, Kingman County accumulates about 4,108 growing degree days above 50°F, about 275 more than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 91 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 Kingman County
Across Kingman County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Shellabarger, Albion, and Nalim are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
66%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kingman County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Kingman County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 10% somewhat poorly drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Shellabarger is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Albion (17%) and Nalim (16%).
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 Kingman County
Each reading below is measured for Kingman 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 Kingman 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 Kingman County runs about pH 5.8–6.5, 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
MeasuredKingman County runs about 219 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
MeasuredKingman 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 Kingman County is in
Kingman 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 Kingman County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kingman County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 219-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 Kingman 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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Kingman County
- monarch butterfly57 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kingman County
USGS estimates 104,678 lb of Glyphosate on Kingman County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (45,788 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (43,536 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 Kingman County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kingman County — 201 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Kingman 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 Kingman County
Closest first, across Kingman County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 28S 07W 30DDD 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 29S 07W 09BAA 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 29S 07W 10ABB 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- NEVILLE BUILT TRAILERS LLCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- 28S 08W 21BBB 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 28S 08W 11BBB 01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 28S 08W 02CCC 01Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 28S 07W 06DBA 01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- SOUTH SIDE 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- DON DYE COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- 28S 07W 06ADB 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- KINGMAN CO DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingman 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 Kingman County.
Total Sites
201
across Kingman County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Kingman County
Severity Distribution
across Kingman County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingman County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 100 sites across Kingman County. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kingman 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 Kingman County average
Your land is one point inside Kingman County
Everything above resolves to Kingman County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 553K 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 Kingman County Average
Kingman County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kingman County
- ●One soil character for all of Kingman County
- ●Frost dates read at Kingman County's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingman County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kingman County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingman County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingman County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingman County average
How we know this about Kingman 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 Kingman County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kingman County
When does frost risk typically end in Kingman County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingman County typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Kingman County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingman County sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 23, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingman County?
The federal record around Kingman County is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (100), 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 Kingman County's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingman 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 Kingman County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kingman County's own scale — its own ~219-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
- Kingman County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kingman County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kingman 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
- Kingman County's boundary and the 552,588 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kingman County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kingman County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kingman 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 Kingman County — the ~219 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 Kingman County's 552,588 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 Kingman Countyread your own land →