Russell 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Russell County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Russell 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 Russell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Russell County — the short answer
Russell County, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 567K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 567K 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 Russell County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Russell County's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Russell County
Across a year, Russell County accumulates about 3,719 growing degree days above 50°F, about 114 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 41 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 Russell County
Across Russell County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Harney, Nibson, and Armo 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
48%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Russell County
The USDA soil survey maps 70% of Russell County as well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 19% somewhat excessively drained, 7% moderately well drained.
Harney is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Nibson (15%) and Armo (11%).
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 Russell County
Each reading below is measured for Russell 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 Russell 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 Russell 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
MeasuredRussell County runs about 202 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
MeasuredRussell 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 Russell County is in
Russell 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 Russell County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Russell County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 202-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 Russell County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Russell County
- monarch butterfly410 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Russell County
USGS estimates 95,541 lb of Glyphosate on Russell County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (34,245 lb) and 2,4-d (34,216 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 Russell County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Russell County — 217 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Russell 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 Russell County
Closest first, across Russell County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUSSELL CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- RUSSELL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- RUSSELL MUN AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- ANDERSON AERIAL SPRAYINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- RUSSEL ENGINE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- BAKER PETROLITE RUSSELLBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- US ENERGY PARTNERS LLC DBA WHITE ENERGYToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- 14S 13W 06BB 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- KOCH GATHERING SYSTEMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- RUSSELL MUN GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PUREFIELD INGREDIENTSBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- PUREFIELD INGREDIENTSToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Russell 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 Russell County.
Total Sites
217
across Russell County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Russell County
Severity Distribution
across Russell County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Russell County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 122 sites across Russell 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 Russell 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 Russell County average
Your land is one point inside Russell County
Everything above resolves to Russell County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 567K 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 Russell County Average
Russell County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Russell County
- ●One soil character for all of Russell County
- ●Frost dates read at Russell County's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Russell County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Russell County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Russell County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Russell County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Russell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Russell County average
How we know this about Russell 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 Russell County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Russell County
When does frost risk typically end in Russell County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Russell County typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Russell County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Russell County sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 12, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Russell County?
The federal record around Russell County is a meaningful one — 217 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 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 Russell County's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Russell 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 Russell County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Russell County's own scale — its own ~202-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 217 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Russell County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Russell County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Russell CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 217 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Russell County's boundary and the 567,206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Russell County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Russell County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Russell 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 Russell County — the ~202 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 Russell County's 567,206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 217 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 Russell Countyread your own land →