Holt County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Holt County lies within the Nebraska Sandhills — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Holt County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Holt 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 Holt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Holt County — the short answer
Holt County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 1.5M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.5M 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 5a is Holt County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holt County's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Holt County
Across a year, Holt County accumulates about 2,645 growing degree days above 50°F, about 195 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 25 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 Holt County
Across Holt County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Valentine, Els, and Ipage are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–6.7, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Holt County
The USDA soil survey maps 33% of Holt County as excessively drained — but another 67% drains differently: 23% somewhat poorly drained, 22% well drained.
Valentine is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Els (11%) and Ipage (8%).
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 Holt County
Each reading below is measured for Holt 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 Holt County are excessively drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Holt County runs about pH 6.5–6.7, 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
MeasuredHolt County runs about 180 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
MeasuredHolt County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Holt County is in
Holt County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Nebraska Sand Hills (61%) and Northwestern Glaciated Plains (38%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Holt County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Holt County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 180-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 Holt County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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.
Documented around Holt County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Holt County
USGS estimates 281,292 lb of Glyphosate on Holt County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (121,842 lb) and Atrazine (62,461 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 Holt County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Holt County — 214 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Holt County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Holt County
Closest first, across Holt County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 29N 13W26AAD 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- E & K FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 1.5 mi
- 29N 13W23BA 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 29N 13W16DAD 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 29N 12W 8DA 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 29N 13W 3DC 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- WESTSIDE TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 29N 12W22DDD 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- B X D FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 4.5 mi
- 28N 13W21AD 1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 29N 12W 3DD 2Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 29N 12W 3DD 1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holt 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 Holt County.
Total Sites
214
across Holt County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Holt County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holt County, two things run higher than the national average across Holt County — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (150 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Holt 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 Holt County average
Your land is one point inside Holt County
Everything above resolves to Holt County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.5M 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 Holt County Average
Holt County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Holt County
- ●One soil character for all of Holt County
- ●Frost dates read at Holt County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holt County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Holt County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holt County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holt County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holt County average
How we know this about Holt 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 Holt County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Holt County
When does frost risk typically end in Holt County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holt County typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Holt County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holt County sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 3, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holt County?
The federal record around Holt County is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (150), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Holt County's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holt 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 Holt County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Holt County's own scale — its own ~180-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 214 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holt County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holt County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Holt CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 214 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Holt County's boundary and the 1,543,583 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Holt County spans, Nebraska Sand Hills the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Holt County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Holt 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 Holt County — the ~180 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 Holt County's 1,543,583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 214 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 Holt Countyread your own land →