Jewell, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Jewell, 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 Jewell 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 Jewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jewell — the short answer
Jewell, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 263 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 263 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 Jewell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jewell's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jewell
Each reading below is measured for Jewell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJewell runs about 200 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
MeasuredJewell 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 Jewell is in
Jewell sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Jewell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jewell County.
What Grows in Jewell
Every plant below cleared Jewell's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jewell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Jewell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jewell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APAC KANSAS INCORPORATED SHEARS PLANT 405Toxics Release Inventory · 250 ft
- BOHNERT SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- J'S JIF-E-STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JEWELL AGRI SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- USD #279Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 04S 08W 25DA 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 04S 07W 30DBC 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 04S 08W 25DAB 01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 04S 08W 25DAB 02Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 04S 07W 26CCC 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 05S 08W 04BBB 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- RANDALL FARMERS CO-OP UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jewell'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 Jewell.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Jewell
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jewell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jewell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jewell, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Jewell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Jewell
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 Jewell average
Your land is one point inside Jewell
Everything above resolves to Jewell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 263 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 Jewell Average
Jewell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Jewell
- ●One soil character for all of Jewell
- ●Frost dates read at Jewell's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jewell's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jewell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jewell, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jewell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jewell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jewell average
How we know this about Jewell
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 Jewell’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 Jewell
When does frost risk typically end in Jewell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jewell 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 Jewell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jewell typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jewell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jewell sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 12, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jewell?
The federal record around Jewell shows 50 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Jewell?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jewell's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jewell'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 Jewell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jewell's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 263 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jewell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jewell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 26 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jewell, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jewell's boundary and the 263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jewell's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jewell's 263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jewell 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 Jewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jewell's 263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jewell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 263 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Jewell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasJewell sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides