Pawnee Rock, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pawnee Rock, 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 Pawnee Rock 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 Pawnee Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pawnee Rock — the short answer
Pawnee Rock, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 181 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 181 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 Pawnee Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pawnee Rock's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pawnee Rock
Each reading below is measured for Pawnee Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPawnee Rock runs about 209 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
MeasuredPawnee Rock 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 Pawnee Rock is in
Pawnee Rock sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pawnee Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barton County.
What Grows in Pawnee Rock
Every plant below cleared Pawnee Rock's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pawnee Rock?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Pawnee Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pawnee Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOWARD'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- 20S 15W 33DBD 01Nitrate · 500 ft
- GREAT BEND COOP-PAWNEE ROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- USD #495Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MULL FARMS & FEEDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 21S 15W 11CBB 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 20S 15W 19DDC 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- WARD FEED YARD - MULLCAFO · 2.6 mi
- 20S 15W 22BAB 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 21S 16W 12DDB 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- BERGTHAL MENNONITE CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 21S 15W 14DAD 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pawnee Rock'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 Pawnee Rock.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pawnee Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pawnee Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pawnee Rock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pawnee Rock — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (78 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pawnee Rock
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 Pawnee Rock average
Your land is one point inside Pawnee Rock
Everything above resolves to Pawnee Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 181 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 Pawnee Rock Average
Pawnee Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pawnee Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Pawnee Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Pawnee Rock's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pawnee Rock's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pawnee Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pawnee Rock, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pawnee Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pawnee Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pawnee Rock average
How we know this about Pawnee Rock
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 Pawnee Rock’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 Pawnee Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Pawnee Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pawnee Rock typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Pawnee Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pawnee Rock typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pawnee Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pawnee Rock sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 16, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pawnee Rock?
The federal record around Pawnee Rock is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pawnee Rock?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pawnee Rock's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pawnee Rock'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 Pawnee Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pawnee Rock's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 181 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pawnee Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pawnee Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 30 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pawnee Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pawnee Rock's boundary and the 181 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pawnee Rock's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pawnee Rock's 181 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barton 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 Barton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pawnee Rock's 181 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pawnee Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 181 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 Pawnee Rock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasPawnee Rock sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides