Kansas City, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Kansas City, 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 Kansas City 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 Kansas City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kansas City — the short answer
Kansas City, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 201K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 201K 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 Kansas City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kansas City's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kansas City
Each reading below is measured for Kansas City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKansas City runs about 232 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
MeasuredKansas City 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 Kansas City is in
Kansas City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kansas City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jackson County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kansas City
Every plant below cleared Kansas City's own zone 6b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kansas City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Kansas City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kansas City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNIVAR SOLUTIONS USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 350 ft
- UNIVAR SOLUTIONS USA INCBrownfields · 350 ft
- CLARKLIFT OF KANSAS CITY, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BATLINER PAPER CO, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 840 EVERYDAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LIFT TRUCK SALES & SERVICE INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- JIMS DISPOSAL SERVICEBrownfields · 600 ft
- IDEAL TRUCK LINE, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 2800 NICHOLSON BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- C.S. EHINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SPEACO CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RUAN LEASING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kansas City'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 Kansas City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kansas City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kansas City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kansas City, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 256 sites within ~10 miles of Kansas City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kansas City
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 Kansas City average
Your land is one point inside Kansas City
Everything above resolves to Kansas City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 201K 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 Kansas City Average
Kansas City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kansas City
- ●One soil character for all of Kansas City
- ●Frost dates read at Kansas City's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kansas City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kansas City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kansas City, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kansas City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kansas City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kansas City average
How we know this about Kansas City
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 Kansas City’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 Kansas City
When does frost risk typically end in Kansas City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kansas City typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Kansas City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kansas City typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kansas City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kansas City sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 31, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kansas City?
The federal record around Kansas City runs heavier than most — 3,562 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,832), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kansas City?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kansas City's scale — its 6b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kansas City'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 Kansas City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kansas City's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 201,290 acres it covers and 3,562 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kansas City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kansas City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 14 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,562 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kansas City, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kansas City's boundary and the 201,290 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kansas City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kansas City's 201,290 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kansas City's 201,290 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kansas City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 201,290 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kansas City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriKansas City sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides