Wathena, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wathena, 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 Wathena 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 Wathena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wathena — the short answer
Wathena, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- 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 6a is Wathena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wathena's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wathena
Each reading below is measured for Wathena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWathena runs about 207 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
MeasuredWathena 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 Wathena is in
Wathena sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wathena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doniphan County.
What Grows in Wathena
Every plant below cleared Wathena's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wathena?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Wathena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wathena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03S 22E 27DBC 02Nitrate · 1500 ft
- ALTEC INDUSTRIES, INC.Brownfields · 1600 ft
- ALTEC INDUSTRIES, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- 03S 23E 30DBB 01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- SUMMIT TRUCK BODIES LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- GROWMARK, INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 03S 22E 35BBB 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- FASTGAS N SNAXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MIDLAND STEELToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- MIDLAND STEELBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MIDLAND STEEL COToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- JACK'S 66 ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wathena'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 Wathena.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wathena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wathena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wathena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wathena — Superfund (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (52 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Wathena
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 Wathena average
Your land is one point inside Wathena
Everything above resolves to Wathena 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 Wathena Average
Wathena Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wathena
- ●One soil character for all of Wathena
- ●Frost dates read at Wathena's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wathena's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wathena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wathena, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wathena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wathena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wathena average
How we know this about Wathena
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 Wathena’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 Wathena
When does frost risk typically end in Wathena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wathena typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Wathena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wathena typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wathena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wathena sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wathena?
The federal record around Wathena is a meaningful one — 548 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (289), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Wathena?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wathena's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wathena'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 Wathena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wathena's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,499 acres it covers and 548 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wathena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wathena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 548 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wathena, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wathena's boundary and the 1,499 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wathena'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 Wathena's 1,499 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doniphan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doniphan 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 Doniphan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wathena's 1,499 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wathena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,499 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Wathena-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasWathena sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.