Riley, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Riley, 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 Riley 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 Riley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Riley — the short answer
Riley, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 325 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 325 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 Riley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riley's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riley
Each reading below is measured for Riley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiley runs about 208 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
MeasuredRiley 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 Riley is in
Riley sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Riley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Riley County.
What Grows in Riley
Every plant below cleared Riley's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Riley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 29 — 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 Riley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARRY, PHILLIP M.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 09S 05E 01BCB 01Nitrate · 950 ft
- BITTERSWEET AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SHORT STOP #21Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 09S 05E 01BA 03Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 09S 05E 01BA 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 09S 05E 02AAA 01Nitrate · 2400 ft
- USD #378Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GRIFFITH OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 09S 06E 03BD 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- STORE 2018 DBA MITCH'S KWIK SHUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- FRITZ OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riley'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 Riley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Riley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Riley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Riley
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 Riley average
Your land is one point inside Riley
Everything above resolves to Riley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 325 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 Riley Average
Riley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Riley
- ●One soil character for all of Riley
- ●Frost dates read at Riley's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riley, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riley average
How we know this about Riley
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 Riley’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 Riley
When does frost risk typically end in Riley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riley 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 Riley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riley typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Riley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riley sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 15, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Riley?
The federal record around Riley is a meaningful one — 50 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Riley?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Riley's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riley'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 Riley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Riley's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 325 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 29 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riley's boundary and the 325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Riley's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Riley's 325 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 Riley's 325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 325 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 Riley-wide figureread your own land →
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