Hall County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Hall County lies within the Platte River Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hall County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hall County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Hall County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hall County — the short answer
Hall County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 350K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 350K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5b is Hall County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hall County's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hall County
Across a year, Hall County accumulates about 3,028 growing degree days above 50°F, about 188 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 62 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Hall County
Across Hall County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Detroit, Valentine, and Hall are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–7.3, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
53%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hall County
The USDA soil survey maps 43% of Hall County as well drained — but another 56% drains differently: 22% moderately well drained, 19% somewhat poorly drained.
Detroit is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Valentine (8%) and Hall (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hall County
Each reading below is measured for Hall County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hall County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hall County runs about pH 6.2–7.3, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHall County runs about 193 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
MeasuredHall County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Hall County is in
Hall County sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hall County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hall County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 193-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Hall County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hall County
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly306 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hall County
USGS estimates 190,587 lb of Atrazine on Hall County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (184,111 lb) and Acetochlor (164,789 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hall County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hall County — 461 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Hall County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hall County
Closest first, across Hall County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N 11W 1AAD 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- BULLET WEIGHTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- 11N 11W36CBB 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11N 11W35AAAA1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- LEON PLASTICS INCSuperfund · 1.6 mi
- LEON PLASTICS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- LEON PLASTICS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 11N 11W 25CC2 AldaNitrate · 1.6 mi
- 11N 11W25CC 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 10N 10W 5BC 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- BULLET WEIGHTS INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 11N 11W35BC 2Nitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hall County'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 Hall County.
Severity Distribution
across Hall County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hall County, two things run higher than the national average across Hall County — CAFO (18 sites) and Superfund (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hall County
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 Hall County average
Your land is one point inside Hall County
Everything above resolves to Hall County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 350K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Hall County Average
Hall County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hall County
- ●One soil character for all of Hall County
- ●Frost dates read at Hall County's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hall County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hall County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hall County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hall County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hall County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hall County average
How we know this about Hall County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Hall County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hall County
When does frost risk typically end in Hall County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hall County typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
How long is the growing season in Hall County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hall County sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 8, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hall County?
The federal record around Hall County runs heavier than most — 461 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (186), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Hall County's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hall County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Nebraska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Hall County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hall County's own scale — its own ~193-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 461 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hall County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hall County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hall CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 461 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hall County's boundary and the 349,778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hall County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hall County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hall County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hall County — the ~193 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hall County's 349,778 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 461 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Hall Countyread your own land →