Morton 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Morton County lies within the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Morton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Morton 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 Morton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Morton County — the short answer
Morton County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 467K 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
- 467K 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 Morton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morton County's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Morton County
Across a year, Morton County accumulates about 3,720 growing degree days above 50°F, about 113 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 42 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 Morton County
Across Morton County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Richfield, Wagonbed, and Dalhart are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Morton County
The USDA soil survey maps 85% of Morton County as well drained — but another 15% drains differently: 11% somewhat excessively drained, 4% excessively drained.
Richfield is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Wagonbed (16%) and Dalhart (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 Morton County
Each reading below is measured for Morton 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 Morton 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 Morton County runs about pH 7.2–7.5, 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
MeasuredMorton 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
MeasuredMorton 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 Morton County is in
Morton County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Morton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Morton 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 Morton 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 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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Morton County
USGS estimates 217,410 lb of Glyphosate on Morton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (147,456 lb) and Acetochlor (91,194 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 Morton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Morton County — 173 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Morton 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 Morton County
Closest first, across Morton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 33S 41W 06BBB 01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 32S 41W 28DB 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 33S 41W 23ADB 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 33S 41W 23ADD 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 32S 41W 35AB 01Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- 33S 42W 21BB 01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- SYRACUSE DAIRY, LLCCAFO · 5.0 mi
- COLORADO INTERSTATE GAS COMPANY LLC - MORTON COUNTY CSBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- 33S 42W 20DAD 01 CAL-210Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 32S 41W 16CBC 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 32S 41W 16DB 01Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- RICHFIELD SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morton 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 Morton County.
Total Sites
173
across Morton County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Morton County
Severity Distribution
across Morton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morton County, two things run higher than the national average across Morton County — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (124 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 Morton 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 Morton County average
Your land is one point inside Morton County
Everything above resolves to Morton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 467K 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 Morton County Average
Morton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Morton County
- ●One soil character for all of Morton County
- ●Frost dates read at Morton County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morton County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Morton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morton County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morton County average
How we know this about Morton 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 Morton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Morton County
When does frost risk typically end in Morton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morton 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 Morton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morton 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 Morton County?
The federal record around Morton County shows 173 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (124), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Morton County's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morton 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 Morton County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Morton County's own scale — its own ~201-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 173 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morton 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 Morton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 173 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Morton County's boundary and the 467,027 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Morton County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Morton 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 Morton 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 Morton County's 467,027 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 173 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 Morton Countyread your own land →