Portis, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Portis, 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 Portis 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 Portis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Portis — the short answer
Portis, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 167 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 167 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 Portis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Portis's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Portis
Each reading below is measured for Portis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPortis 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
MeasuredPortis 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 Portis is in
Portis sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Portis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osborne County.
What Grows in Portis
Every plant below cleared Portis's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Portis?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Portis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Portis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWAY COOP SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- 06S 12W 05CB 01Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 06S 12W 06CBB 01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 06S 13W 12BAA 01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 05S 13W 23DD 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 05S 13W 34AA 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 06S 12W 23AA 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 06S 12W 27A 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- NICHOLS HARDWARE & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 05S 13W 29AA 01Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- 05S 13W 04DC 01Nitrate · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Portis'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 Portis.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Portis
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Portis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Portis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Portis, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Portis. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Portis
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 Portis average
Your land is one point inside Portis
Everything above resolves to Portis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 167 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 Portis Average
Portis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Portis
- ●One soil character for all of Portis
- ●Frost dates read at Portis's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Portis's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Portis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Portis, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Portis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Portis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Portis average
How we know this about Portis
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 Portis’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 Portis
When does frost risk typically end in Portis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Portis typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Portis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Portis 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Portis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Portis sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Portis?
The federal record around Portis shows 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Portis?
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 Portis's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Portis'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 Portis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Portis's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 167 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Portis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Portis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Portis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Portis's boundary and the 167 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Portis's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Portis's 167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osborne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osborne 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 Osborne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Portis's 167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Portis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 167 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 Portis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasPortis sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides