Little River, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Little River, 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 Little River 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 Little River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Little River — the short answer
Little River, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 250 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 250 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 Little River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Little River's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Little River
Each reading below is measured for Little River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLittle River 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
MeasuredLittle River 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 Little River is in
Little River sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Little River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rice County.
What Grows in Little River
Every plant below cleared Little River'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 Little River?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Little River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Little River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADM GRAIN CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CITY MAINT BLDG, FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 19S 06W 17AB 03Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 19S 06W 17AB 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 19S 06W 17ABB 02Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 19S 06W 17ABB 04Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 19S 06W 17ABB 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 19S 06W 17DDD 01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- CLASSIC FEEDERS, INC.CAFO · 1.6 mi
- 19S 06W 06CCB 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 19S 07W 01DAD 01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- RAMAGE BROTHERSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Little River'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 Little River.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Little River
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Little River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Little River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Little River, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Little River — Nitrate (102 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Little River
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 Little River average
Your land is one point inside Little River
Everything above resolves to Little River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 250 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 Little River Average
Little River Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Little River
- ●One soil character for all of Little River
- ●Frost dates read at Little River's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Little River's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Little River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Little River, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Little River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Little River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Little River average
How we know this about Little River
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 Little River’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 Little River
When does frost risk typically end in Little River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Little River typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Little River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Little River typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Little River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Little River sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 16, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Little River?
The federal record around Little River is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Little River?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Little River's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Little River'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 Little River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Little River's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 250 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Little River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Little River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 30 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Little River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Little River's boundary and the 250 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 Little River's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Little River's 250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rice County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rice 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 Rice County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Little River's 250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Little River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 250 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Little River-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasLittle River sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.