Kiowa 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.
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
Kiowa County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kiowa 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 Kiowa County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kiowa County — the short answer
Kiowa County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 462K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 462K 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 Kiowa County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kiowa County's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kiowa County
Across a year, Kiowa County accumulates about 3,863 growing degree days above 50°F, about 30 more than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 57 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 Kiowa County
Across Kiowa County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Pratt, Harney, and Case are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–6.8, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
42%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kiowa County
The USDA soil survey maps 94% of Kiowa County as well drained — but another 6% drains differently: 2% somewhat excessively drained, 2% excessively drained.
Pratt is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Harney (17%) and Case (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 Kiowa County
Each reading below is measured for Kiowa 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 Kiowa County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Kiowa County runs about pH 6.5–6.8, 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
MeasuredKiowa County runs about 208 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
MeasuredKiowa 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 Kiowa County is in
Kiowa County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (57%) and Southwestern Tablelands (43%). 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 Kiowa County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kiowa County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 208-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 Kiowa County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Kiowa County
- monarch butterfly234 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kiowa County
USGS estimates 138,017 lb of Glyphosate on Kiowa County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (91,250 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (88,218 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 Kiowa County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kiowa County — 157 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 Kiowa 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 Kiowa County
Closest first, across Kiowa County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIOWA COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- KIOWA COUNTYBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- KIOWA COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 29S 18W 01DCB 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- DWANE SHANK MOTORS INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- ROGER STOTTS FARMSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- 28S 18W 16CCA 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- HOT OIL TREATING INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SECURITY OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GREENSBURG COLLISION & AUTO GLASSBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 8937Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- GREENSBURG FARM SUPPLYBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kiowa 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 Kiowa County.
Total Sites
157
across Kiowa County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
across Kiowa County
Severity Distribution
across Kiowa County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kiowa County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 118 sites across Kiowa 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 Kiowa 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 Kiowa County average
Your land is one point inside Kiowa County
Everything above resolves to Kiowa County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 462K 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 Kiowa County Average
Kiowa County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kiowa County
- ●One soil character for all of Kiowa County
- ●Frost dates read at Kiowa County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kiowa County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kiowa County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kiowa County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kiowa County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kiowa County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kiowa County average
How we know this about Kiowa 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 Kiowa County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kiowa County
When does frost risk typically end in Kiowa County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kiowa County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Kiowa County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kiowa County sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kiowa County?
The federal record around Kiowa County shows 157 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 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 Kiowa County's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kiowa 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 Kiowa County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kiowa County's own scale — its own ~208-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 157 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kiowa County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kiowa County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kiowa CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 157 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kiowa County's boundary and the 462,489 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Kiowa County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kiowa County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kiowa 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 Kiowa County — the ~208 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 Kiowa County's 462,489 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 157 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 Kiowa Countyread your own land →