Sheridan County, in Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Sheridan County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sheridan 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 Sheridan County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sheridan County — the short answer
Sheridan County, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 573K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 573K 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 6a is Sheridan County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sheridan County's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sheridan County
Across a year, Sheridan County accumulates about 3,218 growing degree days above 50°F, about 615 fewer than the middle Kansas county — ahead of 7 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 Sheridan County
Across Sheridan County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Keith, Ulysses, and Colby are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.9–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sheridan County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Sheridan County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat poorly drained, 1% excessively drained.
Keith is the most extensive named soil at 51% of mapped acres, then Ulysses (18%) and Colby (9%).
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 Sheridan County
Each reading below is measured for Sheridan 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 Sheridan 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 Sheridan County runs about pH 6.9–7.5, 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
MeasuredSheridan County runs about 192 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSheridan County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Sheridan County is in
Sheridan County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (61%) and High Plains (39%). 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 Sheridan County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sheridan County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 192-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 Sheridan 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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What gets applied to farmland in Sheridan County
USGS estimates 287,542 lb of Glyphosate on Sheridan County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (110,796 lb) and Metolachlor (100,452 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 Sheridan County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sheridan County — 171 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Sheridan 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 Sheridan County
Closest first, across Sheridan County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ZIMMERMAN RPRBrownfields · 700 ft
- HEIM BODY SHOPBrownfields · 700 ft
- TIGT-HOXIE TBSBrownfields · 900 ft
- 08S 28W 22BBC 01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 08S 28W 21AAD 01Nitrate · 1300 ft
- HOXIE, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ZIMMERMAN REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EASTSIDE AUTOBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SERVICE LTDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 08S 28W 22BCB 01Nitrate · 1800 ft
- USD #412Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- REIN, VIRGINIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sheridan 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 Sheridan County.
Total Sites
171
across Sheridan County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Sheridan County
Severity Distribution
across Sheridan County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sheridan County, two things run higher than the national average across Sheridan County — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (128 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Sheridan 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 Sheridan County average
Your land is one point inside Sheridan County
Everything above resolves to Sheridan County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 573K 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 Sheridan County Average
Sheridan County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sheridan County
- ●One soil character for all of Sheridan County
- ●Frost dates read at Sheridan County's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sheridan County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sheridan County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sheridan County, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sheridan County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sheridan County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sheridan County average
How we know this about Sheridan 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 Sheridan County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sheridan County
When does frost risk typically end in Sheridan County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sheridan County typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Sheridan County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sheridan County sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 9, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sheridan County?
The federal record around Sheridan County shows 171 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (128), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Sheridan County's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sheridan 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 Sheridan County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Sheridan County's own scale — its own ~192-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 171 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sheridan County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sheridan County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sheridan CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 171 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sheridan County's boundary and the 573,412 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Sheridan County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sheridan 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 Sheridan County — the ~192 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 Sheridan County's 573,412 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 171 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 Sheridan Countyread your own land →