Longton, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Longton, 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 Longton 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 Longton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Longton — the short answer
Longton, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 752 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 752 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 7a is Longton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Longton's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Longton
Each reading below is measured for Longton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLongton runs about 222 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
MeasuredLongton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Longton is in
Longton sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Longton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Elk County is mostly Flint Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Longton
Every plant below cleared Longton's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Longton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Longton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Longton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIRKS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KIRK'S MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 31S 12E 09BC 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 31S 12E 01AC 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 30S 12E 31DC 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 31S 13E 20BBB 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 31S 12E 33BD 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 31S 12E 36BDA 01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- SHORT STOP #15Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- ELK FALLS GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- TERRYS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- 30S 11E 26BBC 01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Longton'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 Longton.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Longton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Longton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Longton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Longton
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 Longton average
Your land is one point inside Longton
Everything above resolves to Longton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 752 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 Longton Average
Longton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Longton
- ●One soil character for all of Longton
- ●Frost dates read at Longton's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Longton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Longton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Longton, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Longton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Longton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Longton average
How we know this about Longton
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 Longton’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 Longton
When does frost risk typically end in Longton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Longton typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Longton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Longton typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Longton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Longton sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 23, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Longton?
The federal record around Longton is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Longton?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Longton's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Longton'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 Longton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Longton's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 752 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Longton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Longton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 6 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Longton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Longton's boundary and the 752 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Longton sits in the Cross Timbers — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Longton's 752 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elk 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 Elk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Longton's 752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Longton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 752 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 Longton-wide figureread your own land →
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