Reno County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Reno 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
Reno County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Reno 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 Reno County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Reno County — the short answer
Reno County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 803K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 803K 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 Reno County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reno County's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Reno County
Across a year, Reno County accumulates about 4,033 growing degree days above 50°F, about 200 more than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 81 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 Reno County
Across Reno County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Shellabarger, Avans, and Nalim are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
49%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Reno County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Reno County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 11% moderately well drained, 11% somewhat poorly drained.
Shellabarger is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Avans (5%) and Nalim (5%).
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 Reno County
Each reading below is measured for Reno 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 Reno 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 Reno County runs about pH 5.7–6.6, 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
MeasuredReno County runs about 210 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
MeasuredReno 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 Reno County is in
Reno 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 Reno County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Reno County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 210-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 Reno 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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Reno County
- monarch butterfly1,331 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Reno County
USGS estimates 278,536 lb of Glyphosate on Reno County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (167,420 lb) and Metolachlor-s (151,614 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 Reno County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Reno County — 908 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. 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 Reno 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 Reno County
Closest first, across Reno County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 24S 07W 22DD 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- PARTRIDGE MILLING CO. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CENTRAL PRAIRIE CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 24S 07W 13CCA 01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 24S 07W 10BB 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- BURLING MILLS INC.CAFO · 3.3 mi
- 24S 07W 31BAAA01 CQS-118Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- NISLY BROTHERS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 24S 08W 24AA 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- FAIRVIEW SERVICE CENTER, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 24S 06W 08CDC 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- MCCULLOUGH ENTERPRISES INC DBA WICHITA TRACTORBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reno 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 Reno County.
Sources Checked
across Reno County
Severity Distribution
across Reno County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reno County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 448 sites across Reno County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Reno 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 Reno County average
Your land is one point inside Reno County
Everything above resolves to Reno County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 803K 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 Reno County Average
Reno County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Reno County
- ●One soil character for all of Reno County
- ●Frost dates read at Reno County's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reno County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Reno County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reno County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reno County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reno County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reno County average
How we know this about Reno 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 Reno County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Reno County
When does frost risk typically end in Reno County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reno County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Reno County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reno County sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 17, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reno County?
The federal record around Reno County is a meaningful one — 908 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (448), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Reno County's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reno 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 Reno County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Reno County's own scale — its own ~210-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 908 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reno County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reno County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Reno CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 908 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Reno County's boundary and the 803,396 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Reno County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Reno County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Reno 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 Reno County — the ~210 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 Reno County's 803,396 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 908 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 Reno Countyread your own land →