Toronto, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Toronto, 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 Toronto 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 Toronto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Toronto — the short answer
Toronto, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 233 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 233 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 Toronto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Toronto's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Toronto
Each reading below is measured for Toronto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredToronto runs about 223 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
MeasuredToronto 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 Toronto is in
Toronto sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Toronto's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Woodson County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Toronto
Every plant below cleared Toronto's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Toronto?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Toronto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Toronto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DYER SINCLAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- BIRD & HANLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- COUNTRY JUNCTION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 26S 14E 05DDD 01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- CORRECTIONS, DEPT OF - TORONTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- CROSS TIMBERS STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- TORONTO DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 25S 13E 30CCA 01Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 25S 14E 16CCB 01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- ROBISON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 27S 14E 07DDD 01Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 25S 12E 35BBB 01Nitrate · 6.9 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Toronto'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 Toronto.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Toronto
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Toronto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Toronto
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Toronto
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 Toronto average
Your land is one point inside Toronto
Everything above resolves to Toronto as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 233 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 Toronto Average
Toronto Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Toronto
- ●One soil character for all of Toronto
- ●Frost dates read at Toronto's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Toronto's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Toronto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Toronto, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Toronto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Toronto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Toronto average
How we know this about Toronto
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 Toronto’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 Toronto
When does frost risk typically end in Toronto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Toronto typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Toronto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Toronto typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Toronto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Toronto sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Toronto?
The federal record around Toronto shows 23 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Toronto?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Toronto's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Toronto'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 Toronto’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Toronto's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 233 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Toronto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Toronto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Toronto, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Toronto's boundary and the 233 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Toronto sits in the Flint Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Toronto's 233 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodson 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 Woodson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Toronto's 233 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Toronto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 233 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 Toronto-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasToronto sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides