Clatonia, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Clatonia, 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 Clatonia 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 Clatonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clatonia — the short answer
Clatonia, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 174 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 174 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 Clatonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clatonia's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clatonia
Each reading below is measured for Clatonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClatonia runs about 198 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
MeasuredClatonia 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 Clatonia is in
Clatonia sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Clatonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gage County.
What Grows in Clatonia
Every plant below cleared Clatonia's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clatonia?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Clatonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clatonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VETS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- MILLER LIVESTOCK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - WILBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2718Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- PRAIRIELAND DAIRY, LLCCAFO · 5.9 mi
- ROCKE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- OTTE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- SHOP QWIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- IRWIN INDUSTRIAL TOOL COToxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- IRWIN INDUSTRIAL TOOL COBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- 6N 4E34CAC 1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- WILBER-CLATONIA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clatonia'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 Clatonia.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Clatonia
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clatonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clatonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clatonia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clatonia — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Clatonia
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 Clatonia average
Your land is one point inside Clatonia
Everything above resolves to Clatonia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 174 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 Clatonia Average
Clatonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Clatonia
- ●One soil character for all of Clatonia
- ●Frost dates read at Clatonia's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clatonia's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clatonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clatonia, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clatonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clatonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clatonia average
How we know this about Clatonia
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 Clatonia’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 Clatonia
When does frost risk typically end in Clatonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clatonia typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Clatonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clatonia typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clatonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clatonia sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 10, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clatonia?
The federal record around Clatonia is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clatonia?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clatonia's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clatonia'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 Clatonia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clatonia's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 174 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clatonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clatonia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 24 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clatonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clatonia's boundary and the 174 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clatonia'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 Clatonia's 174 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gage 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 Gage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clatonia's 174 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clatonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 174 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clatonia-wide figureread your own land →