White Cloud, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in White Cloud, 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 White Cloud 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 White Cloud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Cloud — the short answer
White Cloud, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 463 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 463 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 White Cloud's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Cloud's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Cloud
Each reading below is measured for White Cloud itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Cloud 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
MeasuredWhite Cloud 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 White Cloud is in
White Cloud sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at White Cloud's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doniphan County.
What Grows in White Cloud
Every plant below cleared White Cloud'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 White Cloud?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near White Cloud
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Cloud. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONDLEY, ARTHURUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WHITE CLOUD GRAIN CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 01S 19E 09DCA 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 01S 19E 09DBD 01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- J-SIX FARMS WHITE CLOUDCAFO · 1.5 mi
- 01S 19E 18DAA 01Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- T60N R39W 34BDA1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 01S 19E 28DBC 01Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 01S 18E 14DDD 01Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 01S 19E 34CDC 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 01S 18E 36ADD 01Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- T59N R38W 07BBD1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Cloud'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 White Cloud.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of White Cloud
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Cloud
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Cloud
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Cloud, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Cloud — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (60 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in White Cloud
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 White Cloud average
Your land is one point inside White Cloud
Everything above resolves to White Cloud as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 463 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 White Cloud Average
White Cloud Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across White Cloud
- ●One soil character for all of White Cloud
- ●Frost dates read at White Cloud's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Cloud's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Cloud
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Cloud, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Cloud averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Cloud — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Cloud average
How we know this about White Cloud
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 White Cloud’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 White Cloud
When does frost risk typically end in White Cloud?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Cloud 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 White Cloud?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Cloud typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Cloud?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Cloud sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 16, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Cloud?
The federal record around White Cloud shows 87 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 White Cloud?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Cloud's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Cloud'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 White Cloud’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Cloud's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 463 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Cloud's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Cloud's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 30 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Cloud, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Cloud's boundary and the 463 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 White Cloud'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 White Cloud's 463 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 White Cloud's 463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Cloud you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 White Cloud-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasWhite Cloud sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.