Geneseo, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Geneseo, 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 Geneseo 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 Geneseo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Geneseo — the short answer
Geneseo, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 375 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)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 375 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 Geneseo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Geneseo's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Geneseo
Each reading below is measured for Geneseo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGeneseo runs about 210 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
MeasuredGeneseo 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 Geneseo is in
Geneseo sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Geneseo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rice County.
What Grows in Geneseo
Every plant below cleared Geneseo's own zone 6b and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Geneseo?
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 Oct 30 — 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 Geneseo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Geneseo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LORRAINE GRAIN & FUEL & STOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CONSOLIDATED OIL & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GENESCO GENERALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 17S 08W 35ADD 01Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 17S 08W 25CCC 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 17S 08W 26DDD 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 17S 08W 34DCC 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 18S 07W 18DDC 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- KOHRS, ELDEAN V.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 17S 07W 34CDD 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 18S 07W 21DDC 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 18S 08W 17CC 01Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Geneseo'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 Geneseo.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Geneseo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Geneseo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Geneseo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Geneseo, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Geneseo. 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 Geneseo
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 Geneseo average
Your land is one point inside Geneseo
Everything above resolves to Geneseo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 375 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 Geneseo Average
Geneseo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Geneseo
- ●One soil character for all of Geneseo
- ●Frost dates read at Geneseo's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Geneseo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Geneseo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Geneseo, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Geneseo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Geneseo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Geneseo average
How we know this about Geneseo
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 Geneseo’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 Geneseo
When does frost risk typically end in Geneseo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Geneseo 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 Geneseo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Geneseo typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Geneseo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Geneseo sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 16, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Geneseo?
The federal record around Geneseo is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Geneseo?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Geneseo's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Geneseo'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 Geneseo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Geneseo's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 375 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Geneseo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Geneseo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 30 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Geneseo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Geneseo's boundary and the 375 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Geneseo's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Geneseo's 375 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rice County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rice 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 Rice County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Geneseo's 375 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Geneseo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 375 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Geneseo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasGeneseo sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides