Oketo, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Oketo, 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 Oketo 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 Oketo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oketo — the short answer
Oketo, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 66 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 66 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 Oketo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oketo's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oketo
Each reading below is measured for Oketo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOketo runs about 199 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
MeasuredOketo 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 Oketo is in
Oketo sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oketo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Oketo
Every plant below cleared Oketo's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oketo?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Oketo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oketo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01S 07E 14DB 01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 1N 7E32CD 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 01S 06E 01DD 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- BARTELS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- 01S 08E 02DD 01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- MARYSVILLE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- HERKIMER CO-OP BUSINESS ASSN.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- HERKIMER COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- LANDOLL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- LANDOLL CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 8.0 mi
- LANDOLL CORP.Brownfields · 8.0 mi
- COMMUNITY MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oketo'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 Oketo.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of Oketo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oketo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oketo
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Oketo
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 Oketo average
Your land is one point inside Oketo
Everything above resolves to Oketo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 66 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 Oketo Average
Oketo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Oketo
- ●One soil character for all of Oketo
- ●Frost dates read at Oketo's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oketo's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oketo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oketo, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oketo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oketo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oketo average
How we know this about Oketo
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 Oketo’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 Oketo
When does frost risk typically end in Oketo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oketo typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Oketo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oketo typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oketo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oketo sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 9, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oketo?
The federal record around Oketo shows 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Oketo?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oketo's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oketo'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 Oketo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oketo's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 66 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oketo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oketo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 23 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oketo, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oketo's boundary and the 66 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oketo's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oketo's 66 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oketo's 66 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oketo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 66 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Oketo-wide figureread your own land →
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