Tescott, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Tescott, 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 Tescott 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 Tescott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tescott — the short answer
Tescott, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 247 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 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 247 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 Tescott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tescott's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tescott
Each reading below is measured for Tescott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTescott runs about 211 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
MeasuredTescott 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 Tescott is in
Tescott sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tescott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ottawa County.
What Grows in Tescott
Every plant below cleared Tescott's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tescott?
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 1 — 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 Tescott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tescott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12S 05W 16ADA 01Nitrate · 1300 ft
- SUELTER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CULVER AGR. SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 12S 05W 16ADD 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- HORTING, JOHN LEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 12S 05W 16BDD 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 12S 05W 16DB 01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 12S 05W 16DB 02Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 12S 05W 15CC 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 12S 05W 21AA 02Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 12S 05W 15ADD 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 12S 05W 11DCD 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tescott'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 Tescott.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Tescott
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tescott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tescott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tescott, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 94 sites within ~10 miles of Tescott. 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 Tescott
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 Tescott average
Your land is one point inside Tescott
Everything above resolves to Tescott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 247 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 Tescott Average
Tescott Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tescott
- ●One soil character for all of Tescott
- ●Frost dates read at Tescott's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tescott's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tescott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tescott, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tescott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tescott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tescott average
How we know this about Tescott
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 Tescott’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 Tescott
When does frost risk typically end in Tescott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tescott 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 Tescott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tescott typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tescott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tescott sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 18, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tescott?
The federal record around Tescott is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Nitrate 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 Tescott?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tescott's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tescott'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 Tescott’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tescott's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 247 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tescott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tescott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 1 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tescott, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tescott's boundary and the 247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tescott's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tescott's 247 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ottawa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ottawa 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 Ottawa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tescott's 247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tescott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 247 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Tescott-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasTescott sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides