Ringo, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ringo, 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 Ringo 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 Ringo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ringo — the short answer
Ringo, Kansas: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 962 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 962 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 7a is Ringo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ringo's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ringo
Each reading below is measured for Ringo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRingo runs about 231 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
MeasuredRingo sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Ringo is in
Ringo sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ringo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Ringo
Every plant below cleared Ringo's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ringo?
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 Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Ringo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ringo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GIRARD GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 30S 24E 01AC 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 30S 24E 01 01Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- CRAWFORD COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- PIKES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 30S 24E 02DDD 01 CRAWFORD CO RWD1CNitrate · 3.7 mi
- SOHIGRO SERVICE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- ARNOLD, ALVIN A.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 29S 23E 24DBA 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 29S 23E 24ACD 01Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- FORMS MANUFACTURERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- SUPER SWEET FEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ringo'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 Ringo.
Total Sites
242
within ~10 miles of Ringo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ringo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ringo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ringo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ringo — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ringo
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 Ringo average
Your land is one point inside Ringo
Everything above resolves to Ringo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 962 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 town 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 Ringo Average
Ringo Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ringo
- ●One soil character for all of Ringo
- ●Frost dates read at Ringo's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ringo's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ringo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ringo, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ringo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ringo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ringo average
How we know this about Ringo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ringo’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Ringo
When does frost risk typically end in Ringo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ringo typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Ringo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ringo typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ringo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ringo sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 29, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ringo?
The federal record around Ringo is a meaningful one — 242 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Ringo?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ringo's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ringo'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 Ringo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ringo's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 962 acres it covers and 242 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ringo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ringo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 12 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 242 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ringo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ringo's boundary and the 962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ringo's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ringo's 962 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ringo's 962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ringo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 962 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Ringo-wide figureread your own land →