McCracken, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McCracken, 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 McCracken 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 McCracken — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCracken — the short answer
McCracken, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 638 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 638 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 McCracken's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCracken's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCracken
Each reading below is measured for McCracken itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcCracken runs about 197 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
MeasuredMcCracken 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 McCracken is in
McCracken sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McCracken's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rush County.
What Grows in McCracken
Every plant below cleared McCracken's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCracken?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near McCracken
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCracken. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLES SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MORAN, JAMES C.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MERCURY-WEST ASH STREETSuperfund · 0.5 mi
- 17S 20W 07CAD 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 17S 20W 07ABC 01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 17S 20W 05BCB 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 17S 20W 28CCB 02Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 17S 20W 30CCB 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 17S 20W 29CDD 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 16S 20W 21DDC 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 17S 20W 36ABB 01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 18S 20W 15CCB 01Nitrate · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCracken'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 McCracken.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of McCracken
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McCracken
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCracken
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCracken, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of McCracken. 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 McCracken
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 McCracken average
Your land is one point inside McCracken
Everything above resolves to McCracken as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 638 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 McCracken Average
McCracken Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across McCracken
- ●One soil character for all of McCracken
- ●Frost dates read at McCracken's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCracken's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCracken
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCracken, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCracken averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCracken — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCracken average
How we know this about McCracken
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 McCracken’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 McCracken
When does frost risk typically end in McCracken?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCracken typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in McCracken?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCracken 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCracken?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCracken sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 12, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCracken?
The federal record around McCracken is a meaningful one — 48 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 McCracken?
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 McCracken's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCracken'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 McCracken’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McCracken's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 638 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCracken's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCracken's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 26 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCracken, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCracken's boundary and the 638 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McCracken's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McCracken's 638 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 McCracken's 638 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCracken you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 638 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 McCracken-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasMcCracken sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides