Smolan, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Smolan, 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 Smolan 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 Smolan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smolan — the short answer
Smolan, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 71 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)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 71 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 Smolan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smolan's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smolan
Each reading below is measured for Smolan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmolan runs about 213 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
MeasuredSmolan 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 Smolan is in
Smolan sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Smolan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saline County.
What Grows in Smolan
Every plant below cleared Smolan's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smolan?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Nov 3 — 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 Smolan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smolan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMOLAN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SMOKY HILLS GENETICS, LLCCAFO · 0.9 mi
- 15S 03W 16CBC 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CAMP PHILLIPS (EX)Superfund · 1.6 mi
- SALINA CO HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 14S 03W 32CCA 01Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZSLNBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- CORONADO ENGINEERING INCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- KEJR INCBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- VORTEXToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- VORTEXBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- OVATION CABINETRYBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smolan'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 Smolan.
Total Sites
464
within ~10 miles of Smolan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smolan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smolan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smolan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smolan — Superfund (16 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (31 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Smolan
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 Smolan average
Your land is one point inside Smolan
Everything above resolves to Smolan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 71 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 Smolan Average
Smolan Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Smolan
- ●One soil character for all of Smolan
- ●Frost dates read at Smolan's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smolan's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smolan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smolan, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smolan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smolan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smolan average
How we know this about Smolan
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 Smolan’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 Smolan
When does frost risk typically end in Smolan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smolan 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 Smolan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smolan typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smolan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smolan sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 20, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smolan?
The federal record around Smolan is a meaningful one — 464 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (205), 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 Smolan?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smolan's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smolan'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 Smolan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Smolan's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 71 acres it covers and 464 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smolan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smolan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 3 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 464 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smolan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smolan's boundary and the 71 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smolan's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smolan's 71 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smolan's 71 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smolan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 71 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 Smolan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasSmolan sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.