Vermillion, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Vermillion, 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 Vermillion 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 Vermillion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vermillion — the short answer
Vermillion, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 133 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 133 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 6a is Vermillion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vermillion's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vermillion
Each reading below is measured for Vermillion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVermillion runs about 201 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
MeasuredVermillion sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Vermillion is in
Vermillion sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Vermillion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Vermillion
Every plant below cleared Vermillion's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vermillion?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Vermillion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vermillion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUTCH'S, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- USD #380Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 04S 11E 18CCD 01Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 04S 11E 18DBA 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 04S 11E 05CDC 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 03S 11E 30CBC 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 04S 10E 08CB 01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 04S 10E 35AABB01 SITE 10-1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 04S 10E 35BABB01 SITE 9-1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- NEMAHA COUNTY CO-OP ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 03S 11E 33DCC 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 05S 10E 02BABA01 SITE 13-2Nitrate · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vermillion'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 Vermillion.
Total Sites
190
within ~10 miles of Vermillion
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vermillion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vermillion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vermillion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vermillion — Nitrate (166 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Vermillion
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 Vermillion average
Your land is one point inside Vermillion
Everything above resolves to Vermillion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 133 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 Vermillion Average
Vermillion Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Vermillion
- ●One soil character for all of Vermillion
- ●Frost dates read at Vermillion's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vermillion's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vermillion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vermillion, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vermillion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vermillion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vermillion average
How we know this about Vermillion
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 Vermillion’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 Vermillion
When does frost risk typically end in Vermillion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vermillion typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Vermillion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vermillion typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vermillion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vermillion sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 10, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vermillion?
The federal record around Vermillion shows 190 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (166), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Vermillion?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vermillion's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vermillion'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 Vermillion’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vermillion's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 133 acres it covers and 190 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vermillion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vermillion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 24 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 190 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vermillion, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vermillion's boundary and the 133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vermillion's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vermillion's 133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vermillion's 133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vermillion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 133 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 Vermillion-wide figureread your own land →
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