Horton, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Horton, 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 Horton 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 Horton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Horton — the short answer
Horton, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Horton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Horton's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Horton
Each reading below is measured for Horton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHorton runs about 208 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
MeasuredHorton 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 Horton is in
Horton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Horton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Horton
Every plant below cleared Horton's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Horton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Horton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Horton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROSS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GASKELL, TIMOTHY J. (VACANT LOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SUPER STORE/HIMANI INVESTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KENNYS TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TOWN PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FOSTER FORD COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LENTZ EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FORMERLY RANDALL OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HAMMERSMITH MFG & SALES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HAMMERSMITH MFG & SALES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Horton'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 Horton.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Horton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Horton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Horton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Horton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Horton. 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 Horton
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 Horton average
Your land is one point inside Horton
Everything above resolves to Horton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Horton Average
Horton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Horton
- ●One soil character for all of Horton
- ●Frost dates read at Horton's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Horton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Horton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Horton, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Horton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Horton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Horton average
How we know this about Horton
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 Horton’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 Horton
When does frost risk typically end in Horton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Horton typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Horton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Horton 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Horton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Horton sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Horton?
The federal record around Horton shows 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Horton?
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 Horton's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Horton'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 Horton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Horton's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,135 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Horton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Horton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 30 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Horton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Horton's boundary and the 1,135 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Horton's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Horton's 1,135 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Horton's 1,135 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Horton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,135 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Horton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasHorton sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides