Montezuma, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Montezuma, 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 Montezuma 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 Montezuma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montezuma — the short answer
Montezuma, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 650 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 650 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 Montezuma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montezuma's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montezuma
Each reading below is measured for Montezuma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontezuma runs about 201 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
MeasuredMontezuma 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 Montezuma is in
Montezuma sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Montezuma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gray County.
What Grows in Montezuma
Every plant below cleared Montezuma's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montezuma?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Montezuma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montezuma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K STORES, INC. 2721610Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MONTEZUMA, KS 708Brownfields · 1800 ft
- GRAY COUNTY COOPERATIVE ASSN.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LOVE AG COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SMITH FEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BETHEL HOME, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MONTEZUMA CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GRAIN GROWERS COOPERATIVE ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ENSIGN WIND LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MONTEZUMA WELDING & MFG INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 28S 29W 24ACC 01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montezuma'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 Montezuma.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Montezuma
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montezuma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montezuma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montezuma, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Montezuma. 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 Montezuma
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 Montezuma average
Your land is one point inside Montezuma
Everything above resolves to Montezuma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 650 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 Montezuma Average
Montezuma Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Montezuma
- ●One soil character for all of Montezuma
- ●Frost dates read at Montezuma's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montezuma's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montezuma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montezuma, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montezuma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montezuma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montezuma average
How we know this about Montezuma
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 Montezuma’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 Montezuma
When does frost risk typically end in Montezuma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montezuma typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Montezuma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montezuma typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montezuma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montezuma sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 13, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montezuma?
The federal record around Montezuma is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Montezuma?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montezuma's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montezuma'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 Montezuma’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Montezuma's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 650 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montezuma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montezuma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 27 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montezuma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montezuma's boundary and the 650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montezuma's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montezuma's 650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gray County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gray 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 Gray County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montezuma's 650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montezuma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 650 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 Montezuma-wide figureread your own land →
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