Idana, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Idana, 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 Idana 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 Idana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Idana — the short answer
Idana, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 216 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 216 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 Idana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Idana's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Idana
Each reading below is measured for Idana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIdana runs about 209 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
MeasuredIdana 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 Idana is in
Idana sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Idana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Idana
Every plant below cleared Idana's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Idana?
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 29 — 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 Idana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Idana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 08S 01E 13CAB 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 08S 02E 30DDD 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- KEEOTT FARMS, INCCAFO · 3.9 mi
- 08S 02E 02CCA 01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- CLAY CENTER, CITY OFPFAS · 5.0 mi
- 08S 02E 11ADB 01Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- AIRPORT SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- CLAY CENTERBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- CLAY CENTER, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- 08S 01W 13AD 01Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- PERFECTION AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY STORE #2398Brownfields · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Idana'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 Idana.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Idana
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Idana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Idana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Idana, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Idana. 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 Idana
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 Idana average
Your land is one point inside Idana
Everything above resolves to Idana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 216 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 Idana Average
Idana Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Idana
- ●One soil character for all of Idana
- ●Frost dates read at Idana's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Idana's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Idana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Idana, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Idana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Idana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Idana average
How we know this about Idana
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 Idana’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 Idana
When does frost risk typically end in Idana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Idana 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 Idana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Idana 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Idana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Idana sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 15, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Idana?
The federal record around Idana shows 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Idana?
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 Idana's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Idana'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 Idana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Idana's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 216 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Idana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Idana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 29 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Idana, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Idana's boundary and the 216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Idana's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Idana's 216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Idana's 216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Idana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Idana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasIdana sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides