Moline, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moline, 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 Moline 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 Moline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moline — the short answer
Moline, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 214 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 214 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 Moline's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moline's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moline
Each reading below is measured for Moline itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoline runs about 219 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
MeasuredMoline 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 Moline is in
Moline sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Moline's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elk County.
What Grows in Moline
Every plant below cleared Moline's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moline?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Moline
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moline. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOLINE Q MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- CHIG AMES CHEVY OLDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WATKINS, BILL & SHAEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MERLE'S APCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MOLINE """"Q"""" MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- M.J. MURPHY OIL CO, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARTIN MARIETTA (MOLINE QRY.)Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- MURPHY OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 30S 10E 28CD 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 31S 10E 34DD 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 31S 10E 34DDC 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- TERRYS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moline'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 Moline.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moline
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moline
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moline, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Moline. 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 Moline
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 Moline average
Your land is one point inside Moline
Everything above resolves to Moline as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 214 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 Moline Average
Moline Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Moline
- ●One soil character for all of Moline
- ●Frost dates read at Moline's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moline's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moline
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moline, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moline averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moline average
How we know this about Moline
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 Moline’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 Moline
When does frost risk typically end in Moline?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moline typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Moline?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moline typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moline?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moline sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moline?
The federal record around Moline is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), 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 Moline?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moline's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moline'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 Moline’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moline's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 214 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moline's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moline's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moline, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moline's boundary and the 214 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moline's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moline's 214 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 Moline's 214 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moline you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 214 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 Moline-wide figureread your own land →
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