Yates Center, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Yates Center, 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 Yates Center 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 Yates Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Yates Center — the short answer
Yates Center, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 6b is Yates Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yates Center's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yates Center
Each reading below is measured for Yates Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYates Center runs about 219 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
MeasuredYates Center sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Yates Center is in
Yates Center sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Yates Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Woodson County.
What Grows in Yates Center
Every plant below cleared Yates Center's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yates Center?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Yates Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yates Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROHRERS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GAULDING OIL CO INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- KANSAS DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JACKSONS OK TIRE INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PUMP'N PETE'S #29Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CRESCENT OIL-PHILMART #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- UPRR, DURAND STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SEK COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CASEY'S GENERAL STORE - #1697Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- D & D PROPANE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- YATES CENTER - MWHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WATTS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yates Center'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 Yates Center.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yates Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yates Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yates Center, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Yates Center. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Yates Center
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 Yates Center average
Your land is one point inside Yates Center
Everything above resolves to Yates Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Yates Center Average
Yates Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Yates Center
- ●One soil character for all of Yates Center
- ●Frost dates read at Yates Center's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yates Center's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yates Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yates Center, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yates Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yates Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yates Center average
How we know this about Yates Center
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 Yates Center’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 Yates Center
When does frost risk typically end in Yates Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yates Center typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Yates Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yates Center typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yates Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yates Center sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yates Center?
The federal record around Yates Center is light — 28 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Yates Center?
From about Oct 6 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 Nov 5 (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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yates Center's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yates Center'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 Yates Center’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yates Center's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,618 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yates Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yates Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yates Center, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yates Center's boundary and the 1,618 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yates Center's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yates Center's 1,618 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodson 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 Woodson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yates Center's 1,618 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yates Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,618 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Yates Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasYates Center sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides