Dunlap, 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.
Even in Dunlap, 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 Dunlap 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 Dunlap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dunlap — the short answer
Dunlap, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 157 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 157 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 Dunlap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunlap's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunlap
Each reading below is measured for Dunlap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunlap runs about 217 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
MeasuredDunlap 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 Dunlap is in
Dunlap sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dunlap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Dunlap
Every plant below cleared Dunlap's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunlap?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Dunlap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunlap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C & M CATTLE CO.CAFO · 3.1 mi
- 17S 10E 16AD 01Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 16S 10E 34DDA 01Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 17S 10E 14DA 01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 17S 09E 31DDC 01Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 18S 10E 10BCC 07Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 16S 10E 09CCC 01Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- COUNCIL GROVE, CITY OFPFAS · 7.2 mi
- 18S 08E 01CA 01Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- MORRIS COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- 18S 10E 12CBB 01Nitrate · 7.7 mi
- COUNCIL GROVE PROJECT OFFICEBrownfields · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunlap'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 Dunlap.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of Dunlap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunlap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunlap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunlap, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Dunlap. 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 Dunlap
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 Dunlap average
Your land is one point inside Dunlap
Everything above resolves to Dunlap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 157 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 Dunlap Average
Dunlap Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dunlap
- ●One soil character for all of Dunlap
- ●Frost dates read at Dunlap's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunlap's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunlap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunlap, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunlap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunlap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunlap average
How we know this about Dunlap
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 Dunlap’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 Dunlap
When does frost risk typically end in Dunlap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunlap typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Dunlap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunlap typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunlap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunlap sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunlap?
The federal record around Dunlap is a meaningful one — 51 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest CAFO record about 3.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dunlap?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dunlap's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunlap'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 Dunlap’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dunlap's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 157 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunlap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunlap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunlap, the closest CAFO record about 3.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunlap's boundary and the 157 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunlap's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunlap's 157 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunlap's 157 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunlap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 157 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 3.1 miles 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 Dunlap-wide figureread your own land →
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