Iola, 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 Iola, 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 Iola 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 Iola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Iola — the short answer
Iola, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Iola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Iola's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Iola
Each reading below is measured for Iola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIola runs about 220 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
MeasuredIola 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 Iola is in
Iola sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Iola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allen County.
What Grows in Iola
Every plant below cleared Iola's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Iola?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Iola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Iola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCIENCE CENTERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- IOLA CONCRETE PRODUCTS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TYSON FOODS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MACK C COLT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TAYLOR PETROLEUM #617 (NOW JWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SIGG BROS.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PUMP N PETE'S #25Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- COX COMMUNICATIONS-IOLA TFCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- UTLEYS IOLA AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MOORE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #1794Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 2339Brownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Iola'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 Iola.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Iola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Iola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Iola, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Iola — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (48 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Iola
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 Iola average
Your land is one point inside Iola
Everything above resolves to Iola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Iola Average
Iola Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Iola
- ●One soil character for all of Iola
- ●Frost dates read at Iola's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Iola's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Iola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Iola, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Iola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Iola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Iola average
How we know this about Iola
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 Iola’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 Iola
When does frost risk typically end in Iola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Iola typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Iola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Iola typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Iola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Iola sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Iola?
The federal record around Iola is a meaningful one — 139 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Iola?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Iola's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Iola'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 Iola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Iola's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,858 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Iola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Iola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Iola, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Iola's boundary and the 2,858 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Iola's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Iola's 2,858 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allen 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 Allen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Iola's 2,858 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Iola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,858 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Iola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasIola sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides