Delia, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Delia, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Delia lot. 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 Delia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Delia — the short answer
Delia, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 74 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 74 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Delia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Delia's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Delia
Each reading below is measured for Delia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDelia runs about 212 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
MeasuredDelia 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 Delia is in
Delia sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Delia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jackson County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Delia
Every plant below cleared Delia's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Delia?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Delia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Delia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09S 13E 28ADC 01Nitrate · 150 ft
- DELIA, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 09S 13E 27DAA 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- FORBES (EX) ATLAS FAC S-8Superfund · 1.2 mi
- THOMPSON FARMSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 09S 14E 18CCDC01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 10S 13E 08CCC 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 09S 13E 12ACCA01 PBPN MW5Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 10S 14E 18CBC 01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 10S 13E 20CB 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 09S 12E 15DCC 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- SHAWNEE CO DIST 3 SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Delia'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 Delia.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Delia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Delia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Delia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Delia, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Delia. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Delia
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 Delia average
Your land is one point inside Delia
Everything above resolves to Delia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 74 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Delia Average
Delia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Delia
- ●One soil character for all of Delia
- ●Frost dates read at Delia's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Delia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Delia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Delia, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Delia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Delia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Delia average
How we know this about Delia
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Delia’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Delia
When does frost risk typically end in Delia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Delia typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Delia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Delia typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Delia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Delia sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Delia?
The federal record around Delia is a meaningful one — 122 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Delia?
From about Oct 2 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Delia's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Delia's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Delia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Delia's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 74 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Delia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Delia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Delia, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Delia's boundary and the 74 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Delia sits in the Flint Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Delia's 74 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Delia's 74 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Delia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 74 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Delia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasDelia sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides