Hutchinson, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hutchinson, 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 Hutchinson 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 Hutchinson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hutchinson — the short answer
Hutchinson, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Hutchinson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hutchinson's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hutchinson
Each reading below is measured for Hutchinson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHutchinson runs about 216 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
MeasuredHutchinson 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 Hutchinson is in
Hutchinson sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hutchinson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Reno County.
What Grows in Hutchinson
Every plant below cleared Hutchinson's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hutchinson?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Hutchinson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hutchinson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 23S 05W 07ACD 01Nitrate · 600 ft
- YESWAY STORE #1044Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WAL-MART STORE #794Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #336Brownfields · 1600 ft
- HUTCHINSON NATIONAL GUARD ARMOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OMS #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CONKLIN CARSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CONKLIN CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- USD #308Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- T & E OIL #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DICK'S ENTERPRISES INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HUTCHINSON VOTECHBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hutchinson'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 Hutchinson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hutchinson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hutchinson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hutchinson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 208 sites within ~10 miles of Hutchinson. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hutchinson
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 Hutchinson average
Your land is one point inside Hutchinson
Everything above resolves to Hutchinson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 Hutchinson Average
Hutchinson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hutchinson
- ●One soil character for all of Hutchinson
- ●Frost dates read at Hutchinson's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hutchinson's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hutchinson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hutchinson, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hutchinson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hutchinson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hutchinson average
How we know this about Hutchinson
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 Hutchinson’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 Hutchinson
When does frost risk typically end in Hutchinson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hutchinson typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Hutchinson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hutchinson typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hutchinson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hutchinson sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 21, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hutchinson?
The federal record around Hutchinson is a meaningful one — 605 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (208), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Hutchinson?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hutchinson's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hutchinson'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 Hutchinson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hutchinson's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,273 acres it covers and 605 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hutchinson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hutchinson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 4 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 605 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hutchinson, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hutchinson's boundary and the 16,273 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hutchinson's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hutchinson's 16,273 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Reno County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Reno 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 Reno County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hutchinson's 16,273 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hutchinson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,273 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Hutchinson-wide figureread your own land →