Palco, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Palco, 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 Palco 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 Palco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palco — the short answer
Palco, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 172 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 172 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 Palco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palco's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palco
Each reading below is measured for Palco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalco runs about 196 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
MeasuredPalco 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 Palco is in
Palco sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Palco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rooks County.
What Grows in Palco
Every plant below cleared Palco's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palco?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Palco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THUNDERBIRD OIL CO & HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- QUALITY COLLISION REPAIRBrownfields · 500 ft
- PETRO PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- USD #269Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- THUNDERBIRD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 09S 20W 29DDD 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- OWS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DUANE STEEPLESUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 08S 20W 31ACB 01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 10S 20W 20AAA 01Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 08S 20W 20BCA 01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- HELEN A KELLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palco'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 Palco.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palco, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Palco. 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 Palco
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 Palco average
Your land is one point inside Palco
Everything above resolves to Palco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 172 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 Palco Average
Palco Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Palco
- ●One soil character for all of Palco
- ●Frost dates read at Palco's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palco's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palco, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palco average
How we know this about Palco
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 Palco’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 Palco
When does frost risk typically end in Palco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palco 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 Palco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palco typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palco sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palco?
The federal record around Palco is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), 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 Palco?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palco's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palco'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 Palco’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palco's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 172 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palco's boundary and the 172 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palco's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palco's 172 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rooks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rooks 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 Rooks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palco's 172 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 172 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 Palco-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasPalco sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides