Edson, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Edson, 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 Edson 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 Edson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edson — the short answer
Edson, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 447 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 447 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 6a is Edson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edson's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edson
Each reading below is measured for Edson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdson runs about 178 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
MeasuredEdson 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 Edson is in
Edson sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Edson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sherman County.
What Grows in Edson
Every plant below cleared Edson's own zone 6a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Edson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Edson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 523 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EDSON AURI SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 08S 38W 24AAB 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 09S 38W 05DCC 01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- HELENA AGRI-ENTERPRISES LLC DBA HELENA CHEMICAL COBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 08S 37W 32ABB 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- LIVENGOOD BROTHERSCAFO · 4.5 mi
- 08S 37W 28BBD 01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 08S 37W 33BAA 01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 08S 39W 26CCDC01 COS-1120Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 07S 38W 36ADA 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- DAVIS BROTHERS FARM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 08S 39W 22CDB 01Nitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edson'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 Edson.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Edson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Edson. 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 Edson
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 Edson average
Your land is one point inside Edson
Everything above resolves to Edson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 447 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 town 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 Edson Average
Edson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Edson
- ●One soil character for all of Edson
- ●Frost dates read at Edson's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edson's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edson, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edson average
How we know this about Edson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Edson’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Edson
When does frost risk typically end in Edson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edson typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Edson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edson typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edson sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 4, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edson?
The federal record around Edson shows 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Edson?
From about Sep 18 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 Oct 18 (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 Oct 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edson's scale — its 6a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edson'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 Edson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Edson's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 447 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 18 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edson's boundary and the 447 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edson's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Edson checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Edson's 447 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sherman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sherman 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 Sherman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edson's 447 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 447 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Edson-wide figureread your own land →
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