Sterling, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Sterling, 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 Sterling 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 Sterling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sterling — the short answer
Sterling, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 1K 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 Sterling's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sterling's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sterling
Each reading below is measured for Sterling itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSterling 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
MeasuredSterling 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 Sterling is in
Sterling sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sterling's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rice County.
What Grows in Sterling
Every plant below cleared Sterling'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 Sterling?
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 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 Sterling
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sterling. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLENN & DONS SKELLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- JACAM MFG. - ORGANOCLAY PROCESSINGToxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- JACAM MFG. - ORGANOCLAY PROCESSINGBrownfields · 300 ft
- STERLING CITY OFBrownfields · 350 ft
- STERLING FOOD MART, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JAY-ROSE SALES & LEASING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CENTRAL PRAIRIE CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- STERLING FARM SUPPLYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- STERLING MUN. POWER PLANT (AIR)Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CITY OF STERLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 21S 08W 21BAD 01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- SOUTHGATE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sterling'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 Sterling.
Total Sites
220
within ~10 miles of Sterling
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sterling
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sterling
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sterling, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sterling — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (140 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 Sterling
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 Sterling average
Your land is one point inside Sterling
Everything above resolves to Sterling as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sterling Average
Sterling Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sterling
- ●One soil character for all of Sterling
- ●Frost dates read at Sterling's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sterling's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sterling
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sterling, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sterling averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sterling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sterling average
How we know this about Sterling
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 Sterling’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 Sterling
When does frost risk typically end in Sterling?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sterling 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 Sterling?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sterling 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 Sterling?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sterling 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 Sterling?
The federal record around Sterling is a meaningful one — 220 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Sterling?
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 Sterling's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sterling'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 Sterling’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sterling's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,194 acres it covers and 220 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sterling's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sterling's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 3 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 220 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sterling, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sterling's boundary and the 1,194 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 Sterling's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sterling's 1,194 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rice County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rice 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 Rice County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sterling's 1,194 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sterling you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,194 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sterling-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasSterling sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.