Chalco, Nebraska, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chalco, 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 Chalco 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 Chalco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chalco — the short answer
Chalco, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- 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
- Town 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 6a is Chalco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chalco's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chalco
Each reading below is measured for Chalco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChalco 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
MeasuredChalco 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 Chalco is in
Chalco sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chalco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sarpy County.
What Grows in Chalco
Every plant below cleared Chalco's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chalco?
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. 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 Chalco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chalco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARLSON SYSTEMS ENGINEERINGBrownfields · 2200 ft
- WATKINS CONCRETE BLOCK COToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- PPG PAINTSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- OMNI ENGINEERING PLANT 02Brownfields · 2400 ft
- OMG MIDWEST INC dba OMNI ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- INTERSYSTEMSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MORTON BUILDINGS - OMAHABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TRI SALES ASSOC INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- REGIS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRUGREENBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PRESTIGE PAINTINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SERGEANT'S PET CARE PRODUCTS LLC DBA PETIQBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chalco'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 Chalco.
Total Sites
1,082
within ~10 miles of Chalco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chalco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chalco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chalco, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chalco — Toxics Release Inventory (75 sites) and Brownfields (576 sites). 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Chalco
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 Chalco average
Your land is one point inside Chalco
Everything above resolves to Chalco 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 town 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 Chalco Average
Chalco Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chalco
- ●One soil character for all of Chalco
- ●Frost dates read at Chalco's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chalco's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chalco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chalco, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chalco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chalco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chalco average
How we know this about Chalco
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Chalco’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Chalco
When does frost risk typically end in Chalco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chalco 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 Chalco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chalco 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 Chalco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chalco 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 Chalco?
The federal record around Chalco is a meaningful one — 1,082 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (576), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Chalco?
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 Chalco's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chalco'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 Chalco’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chalco's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,720 acres it covers and 1,082 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chalco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chalco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,082 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chalco, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chalco's boundary and the 1,720 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 Chalco'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 Chalco's 1,720 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sarpy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sarpy County
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sarpy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chalco's 1,720 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chalco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,720 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Chalco-wide figureread your own land →