Wetmore, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wetmore, 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 Wetmore 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 Wetmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wetmore — the short answer
Wetmore, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 248 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
- 248 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 Wetmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wetmore's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wetmore
Each reading below is measured for Wetmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWetmore 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
MeasuredWetmore 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 Wetmore is in
Wetmore sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wetmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nemaha County.
What Grows in Wetmore
Every plant below cleared Wetmore'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 Wetmore?
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 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. 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 Wetmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wetmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOB'S AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WETMORE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CLAUDE'S STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 05S 14E 11ACC 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 05S 14E 11ACC 02Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 05S 14E 14BAC 01Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 05S 14E 10CBB 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 04S 14E 34ADD 01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 04S 14E 34ADDA01Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 05S 14E 22AAA 01Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 05S 15E 08BAB 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 05S 14E 04BAC 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wetmore'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 Wetmore.
Total Sites
157
within ~10 miles of Wetmore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wetmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wetmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wetmore, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wetmore — Nitrate (144 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). 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.
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 Wetmore
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 Wetmore average
Your land is one point inside Wetmore
Everything above resolves to Wetmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 248 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 Wetmore Average
Wetmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wetmore
- ●One soil character for all of Wetmore
- ●Frost dates read at Wetmore's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wetmore's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wetmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wetmore, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wetmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wetmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wetmore average
How we know this about Wetmore
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 Wetmore’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 Wetmore
When does frost risk typically end in Wetmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wetmore 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 Wetmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wetmore 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 Wetmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wetmore 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 Wetmore?
The federal record around Wetmore is a meaningful one — 157 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (144), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wetmore?
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 Wetmore's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wetmore'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 Wetmore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wetmore's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 248 acres it covers and 157 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wetmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wetmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 157 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wetmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wetmore's boundary and the 248 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 Wetmore'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 Wetmore's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nemaha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nemaha 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 Nemaha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wetmore's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wetmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 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 Wetmore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasWetmore sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides