Leoti, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leoti, 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 Leoti 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 Leoti — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leoti — the short answer
Leoti, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 842 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 842 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 Leoti's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leoti's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leoti
Each reading below is measured for Leoti itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeoti runs about 186 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
MeasuredLeoti 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 Leoti is in
Leoti sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Leoti's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wichita County.
What Grows in Leoti
Every plant below cleared Leoti's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leoti?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Leoti
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leoti. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KENS REPAIRBrownfields · 350 ft
- DOWNS FARMS SECTION 1-21-38Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- EAGLE CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WESTERN MTR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SUNFLOWER TELEPHONE CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- NUTRIEN AG SOLUTIONS LEOTIBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FITZGERALD OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CIRCLE K STORES, INC. 2721611Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WICHITA CNTY ROAD DEPTBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 18S 37W 13DDC 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leoti'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 Leoti.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Leoti
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leoti
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leoti
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leoti, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leoti — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (88 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Leoti
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 Leoti average
Your land is one point inside Leoti
Everything above resolves to Leoti as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 842 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 Leoti Average
Leoti Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leoti
- ●One soil character for all of Leoti
- ●Frost dates read at Leoti's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leoti's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leoti
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leoti, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leoti averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leoti — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leoti average
How we know this about Leoti
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 Leoti’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 Leoti
When does frost risk typically end in Leoti?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leoti typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Leoti?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leoti typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leoti?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leoti sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 7, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leoti?
The federal record around Leoti shows 132 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Brownfields 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 Leoti?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leoti's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leoti'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 Leoti’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leoti's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 842 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leoti's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leoti's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 21 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leoti, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leoti's boundary and the 842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leoti's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leoti's 842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wichita County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wichita 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 Wichita County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leoti's 842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leoti you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Leoti-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides