Pomona, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pomona, 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 Pomona 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 Pomona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pomona — the short answer
Pomona, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 604 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 604 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 Pomona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pomona's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pomona
Each reading below is measured for Pomona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPomona runs about 221 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
MeasuredPomona 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 Pomona is in
Pomona sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pomona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Pomona
Every plant below cleared Pomona's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pomona?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
Documented around Pomona
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pomona checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 438 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pomona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pomona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WIL-MART GAS & MOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE #2839Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- POMONA BUY-RITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PEEK, NORMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 17S 18E 21CCC 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 17S 18E 30BBB 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 17S 17E 10CC 02Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- LEWIS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 17S 17E 09DD 01Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- 16S 17E 02CDD 01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 16S 17E 10AB 01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- MARTIN MACHINERYBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pomona'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 Pomona.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Pomona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pomona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pomona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pomona, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Pomona. 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 Pomona
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 Pomona average
Your land is one point inside Pomona
Everything above resolves to Pomona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 604 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 Pomona Average
Pomona Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pomona
- ●One soil character for all of Pomona
- ●Frost dates read at Pomona's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pomona's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pomona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pomona, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pomona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pomona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pomona average
How we know this about Pomona
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 Pomona’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 Pomona
When does frost risk typically end in Pomona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pomona typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Pomona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pomona typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pomona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pomona sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pomona?
The federal record around Pomona shows 69 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pomona?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pomona's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pomona'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 Pomona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pomona's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 604 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pomona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pomona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pomona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pomona's boundary and the 604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pomona's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pomona checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pomona's 604 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pomona's 604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pomona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 604 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pomona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasPomona sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides