Hugoton, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hugoton, 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 Hugoton 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 Hugoton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hugoton — the short answer
Hugoton, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- 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 6b is Hugoton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hugoton's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hugoton
Each reading below is measured for Hugoton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHugoton runs about 203 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
MeasuredHugoton 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 Hugoton is in
Hugoton sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hugoton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stevens County.
What Grows in Hugoton
Every plant below cleared Hugoton's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hugoton?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Hugoton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hugoton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUGOTON UPTOWN AUTOBODYBrownfields · 850 ft
- HUGOTON TIRE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- EAGLE'S NEST IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KANSAS DAIRY INGREDIENTS PHASE 2Brownfields · 1300 ft
- KANSAS DAIRY INGREDIENTS PHASE 2Toxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- ROME FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HUGOTON AIR PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CRANE SUPPLY CO INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CIRCLE K STORES, INC. 2721602Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RASH OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 33S 37W 16AC 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- BOVAIRD SUPPLYBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hugoton'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 Hugoton.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Hugoton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hugoton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hugoton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hugoton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hugoton — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (70 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hugoton
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 Hugoton average
Your land is one point inside Hugoton
Everything above resolves to Hugoton 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 Hugoton Average
Hugoton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hugoton
- ●One soil character for all of Hugoton
- ●Frost dates read at Hugoton's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hugoton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hugoton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hugoton, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hugoton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hugoton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hugoton average
How we know this about Hugoton
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 Hugoton’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 Hugoton
When does frost risk typically end in Hugoton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hugoton typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Hugoton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hugoton typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hugoton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hugoton sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 15, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hugoton?
The federal record around Hugoton shows 126 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Hugoton?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hugoton's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hugoton'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 Hugoton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hugoton's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,341 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hugoton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hugoton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 29 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hugoton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hugoton's boundary and the 1,341 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hugoton's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hugoton's 1,341 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stevens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stevens 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 Stevens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hugoton's 1,341 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hugoton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,341 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Hugoton-wide figureread your own land →
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