Fort Riley, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Fort Riley, 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 Fort Riley 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 Fort Riley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fort Riley — the short answer
Fort Riley, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- 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)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Fort Riley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Riley's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Riley
Each reading below is measured for Fort Riley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Riley runs about 211 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
MeasuredFort Riley 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 Fort Riley is in
Fort Riley sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Riley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Riley County.
What Grows in Fort Riley
Every plant below cleared Fort Riley's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Riley?
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 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 Oct 31 — 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 Fort Riley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Riley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRUSI WATER TREATMENT PLANTPFAS · 1.6 mi
- 11S 06E 30BBD 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 11S 05E 25AAD 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 11S 06E 30BCA 01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 11S 05E 25BBC 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 11S 06E 30BDC 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 11S 06E 30BDD 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 11S 05E 25BCB 01Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 11S 06E 30CAA 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 11S 06E 15AC 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- KANSAS ARNG/MOBILE & TRAINING EQUIPMENT SITEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- FORT RILEY, ARMYBrownfields · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Riley'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 Fort Riley.
Total Sites
282
within ~10 miles of Fort Riley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Riley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Riley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Riley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 106 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Riley. 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 Fort Riley
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 Fort Riley average
Your land is one point inside Fort Riley
Everything above resolves to Fort Riley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Fort Riley Average
Fort Riley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fort Riley
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Riley
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Riley's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Riley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Riley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Riley, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Riley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Riley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Riley average
How we know this about Fort Riley
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 Fort Riley’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 Fort Riley
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Riley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Riley 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 Fort Riley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Riley typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Riley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Riley sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Riley?
The federal record around Fort Riley is a meaningful one — 282 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (106), the nearest PFAS record about 1.6 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 Fort Riley?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Riley's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Riley'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 Fort Riley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Riley's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,103 acres it covers and 282 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Riley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Riley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 282 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Riley, the closest PFAS record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Riley's boundary and the 4,103 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Riley's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Riley's 4,103 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Riley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Riley 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 Riley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Riley's 4,103 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Riley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,103 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.6 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 Fort Riley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides