Randolph, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Randolph, 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 Randolph 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 Randolph — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Randolph — the short answer
Randolph, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 176 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 176 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 Randolph's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Randolph's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Randolph
Each reading below is measured for Randolph itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRandolph runs about 206 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
MeasuredRandolph 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 Randolph is in
Randolph sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Randolph's own centroid rather than borrowed from Riley County.
What Grows in Randolph
Every plant below cleared Randolph's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Randolph?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Randolph
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Randolph. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USD #384Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SHARP'S SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 07S 06E 28AAA 01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 07S 06E 28BA 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 07S 06E 28BA 02Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- BRADDOCK'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GRIFFITH OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 07S 06E 02CA 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 08S 06E 01DC 01Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- STORE 2018 DBA MITCH'S KWIK SHUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- SWEDE'S MACHANIC SHOPBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- 07S 07E 14CCC 01Nitrate · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Randolph'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 Randolph.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Randolph, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Randolph. 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 Randolph
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 Randolph average
Your land is one point inside Randolph
Everything above resolves to Randolph as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 176 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 Randolph Average
Randolph Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Randolph
- ●One soil character for all of Randolph
- ●Frost dates read at Randolph's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Randolph's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Randolph
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Randolph, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Randolph averages can't show:
We read public map data around Randolph — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Randolph average
How we know this about Randolph
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 Randolph’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 Randolph
When does frost risk typically end in Randolph?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Randolph?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Randolph?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Randolph sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 14, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Randolph?
The federal record around Randolph is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Randolph?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Randolph's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Randolph'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 Randolph’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Randolph's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 176 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Randolph's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Randolph's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 28 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Randolph, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Randolph's boundary and the 176 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Randolph's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Randolph's 176 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Riley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Riley 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 Riley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Randolph's 176 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Randolph you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 176 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Randolph-wide figureread your own land →
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