Ransom, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ransom, 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 Ransom 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 Ransom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ransom — the short answer
Ransom, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 225 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 225 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 Ransom's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ransom's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ransom
Each reading below is measured for Ransom itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRansom runs about 194 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
MeasuredRansom 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 Ransom is in
Ransom sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ransom's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ness County.
What Grows in Ransom
Every plant below cleared Ransom's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ransom?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Ransom
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ransom. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16S 24W 25B 01Nitrate · 300 ft
- W. L. SUTTON & N.M. MCDANIEL (Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- USD #106, RANSOM HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 15S 24W 35CCC 01Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- MOLLENKAMP OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 16S 25W 13B 01Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- 15S 23W 35BCB 01Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 15S 24W 31DDC 01Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 15S 23W 21DDC 01Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 15S 24W 15CCC 01Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- 15S 23W 14CCD 01Nitrate · 8.4 mi
- 15S 25W 35CDC 01Nitrate · 8.8 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ransom'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 Ransom.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ransom
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Ransom
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 Ransom average
Your land is one point inside Ransom
Everything above resolves to Ransom as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 225 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 Ransom Average
Ransom Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ransom
- ●One soil character for all of Ransom
- ●Frost dates read at Ransom's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ransom's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ransom
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ransom, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ransom averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ransom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ransom average
How we know this about Ransom
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 Ransom’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 Ransom
When does frost risk typically end in Ransom?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ransom typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Ransom?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ransom typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ransom?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ransom sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 10, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ransom?
The federal record around Ransom is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate 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 Ransom?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ransom's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ransom'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 Ransom’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ransom's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 225 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ransom's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ransom's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 24 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ransom, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ransom's boundary and the 225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ransom's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ransom's 225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ness County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ness 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 Ness County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ransom's 225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ransom you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 225 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Ransom-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasRansom sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.