La Crosse, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in La Crosse, 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 La Crosse 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 La Crosse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Crosse — the short answer
La Crosse, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 663 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 663 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 La Crosse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Crosse's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Crosse
Each reading below is measured for La Crosse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Crosse runs about 194 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLa Crosse 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 La Crosse is in
La Crosse sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Crosse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rush County.
What Grows in La Crosse
Every plant below cleared La Crosse's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Crosse?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near La Crosse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Crosse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHAFFER OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LACROSSE, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EDS AUTO & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DEAN'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- C & S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 17S 18W 34BBD 01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- MILLER TEXACO AKA MILLER HOMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 17S 18W 33ACD 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- R A G MOTORSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE - #1879Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- A F FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Crosse'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 La Crosse.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of La Crosse
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Crosse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Crosse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Crosse, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 94 sites within ~10 miles of La Crosse. 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 La Crosse
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 La Crosse average
Your land is one point inside La Crosse
Everything above resolves to La Crosse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 663 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 La Crosse Average
La Crosse Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across La Crosse
- ●One soil character for all of La Crosse
- ●Frost dates read at La Crosse's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Crosse's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Crosse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Crosse, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Crosse averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Crosse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Crosse average
How we know this about La Crosse
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 La Crosse’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 La Crosse
When does frost risk typically end in La Crosse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Crosse typically lands around Apr 13, 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 May 4.
When is the first frost in La Crosse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Crosse typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Crosse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Crosse sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 10, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Crosse?
The federal record around La Crosse shows 118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 La Crosse?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Crosse's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Crosse'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 La Crosse’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Crosse's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 663 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Crosse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Crosse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 24 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Crosse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Crosse's boundary and the 663 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Crosse's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Crosse's 663 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rush County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rush 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 Rush County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Crosse's 663 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Crosse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 663 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 La Crosse-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasLa Crosse sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides