Emporia, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Emporia, 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 Emporia 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 Emporia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Emporia — the short answer
Emporia, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Emporia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Emporia's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Emporia
Each reading below is measured for Emporia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEmporia runs about 222 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
MeasuredEmporia 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 Emporia is in
Emporia sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Emporia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lyon County.
What Grows in Emporia
Every plant below cleared Emporia's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Emporia?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Emporia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Emporia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWEST CONCRETE MATERIALS - PLANT #34 (AIR)Toxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- BUILDERS CHOICE CONCRETEToxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- PENNYS CONCRETE & READY MIX LLUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- IRSIK & DOLL FEED SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BROADVIEW 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LINDEMUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WENDY'S RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TOTAL #1854Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- J D MILLER AND SONS INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- LA TIENDA 100182Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHERWIN WILLIAMS 7238Brownfields · 1900 ft
- FINISHLINE #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Emporia'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 Emporia.
Total Sites
256
within ~10 miles of Emporia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Emporia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Emporia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Emporia
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 Emporia average
Your land is one point inside Emporia
Everything above resolves to Emporia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Emporia Average
Emporia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Emporia
- ●One soil character for all of Emporia
- ●Frost dates read at Emporia's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Emporia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Emporia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Emporia, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Emporia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Emporia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Emporia average
How we know this about Emporia
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 Emporia’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 Emporia
When does frost risk typically end in Emporia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Emporia typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Emporia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Emporia typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Emporia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Emporia sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 24, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Emporia?
The federal record around Emporia is a meaningful one — 256 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Emporia?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Emporia's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Emporia'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 Emporia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Emporia's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,970 acres it covers and 256 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Emporia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Emporia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 7 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 256 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Emporia, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Emporia's boundary and the 7,970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Emporia's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Emporia's 7,970 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Emporia's 7,970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Emporia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,970 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Emporia-wide figureread your own land →
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