Rolla, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rolla, 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 Rolla 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 Rolla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rolla — the short answer
Rolla, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 239 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 239 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 Rolla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rolla's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rolla
Each reading below is measured for Rolla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRolla runs about 202 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
MeasuredRolla 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 Rolla is in
Rolla sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rolla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morton County.
What Grows in Rolla
Every plant below cleared Rolla's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rolla?
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 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 29 — 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 Rolla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rolla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 34S 40W 02DA 03Nitrate · 500 ft
- 34S 40W 02DA 04Nitrate · 500 ft
- 34S 40W 02DA 02Nitrate · 500 ft
- 34S 40W 02DA 01Nitrate · 500 ft
- ROLLA CITY OFBrownfields · 850 ft
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- USD #217Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ROLLA CORNER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NALCO COMPANYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WESTERN MARKETING-ROLLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WESTERN MARKETING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- ELKHART COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rolla'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 Rolla.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Rolla
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rolla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rolla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rolla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rolla — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rolla
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 Rolla average
Your land is one point inside Rolla
Everything above resolves to Rolla as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 239 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 Rolla Average
Rolla Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rolla
- ●One soil character for all of Rolla
- ●Frost dates read at Rolla's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rolla's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rolla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rolla, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rolla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rolla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rolla average
How we know this about Rolla
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 Rolla’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 Rolla
When does frost risk typically end in Rolla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rolla 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 Rolla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rolla 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 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rolla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rolla sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rolla?
The federal record around Rolla shows 81 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), the nearest Nitrate 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 Rolla?
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 Rolla's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rolla'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 Rolla’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rolla's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 239 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rolla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rolla's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 29 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rolla, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rolla's boundary and the 239 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rolla's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rolla's 239 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morton 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 Morton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rolla's 239 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rolla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 239 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 Rolla-wide figureread your own land →
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