Winona, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Winona, 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 Winona 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 Winona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winona — the short answer
Winona, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 167 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 167 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 Winona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winona's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winona
Each reading below is measured for Winona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinona runs about 191 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWinona 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 Winona is in
Winona sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Winona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Logan County.
What Grows in Winona
Every plant below cleared Winona's own zone 6a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winona?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Winona
Survey cells within 31 miles of Winona checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 543 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Winona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USD #275Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TOWN & COUNTRY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LOWE FUEL SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SERVICE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TOWN & COUNTRY SVCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- LOGAN CNTY WEED DEPTBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 12S 35W 07DA 02Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 11S 35W 22CA 01Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 11S 35W 05BBB 01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 11S 35W 05BBA 01Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 12S 34W 07CB 01Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winona'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 Winona.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winona, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Winona. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Winona
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 Winona average
Your land is one point inside Winona
Everything above resolves to Winona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 167 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 Winona Average
Winona Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Winona
- ●One soil character for all of Winona
- ●Frost dates read at Winona's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winona's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winona, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winona average
How we know this about Winona
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 Winona’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 Winona
When does frost risk typically end in Winona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winona typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Winona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winona typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winona sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 9, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winona?
The federal record around Winona is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Winona?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winona's scale — its 6a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winona'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 Winona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Winona's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 167 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 23 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winona's boundary and the 167 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winona's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Winona checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winona's 167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Logan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Logan 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 Logan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winona's 167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 167 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 Winona-wide figureread your own land →
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