Kearney County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Kearney 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
Kearney County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kearney 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 Kearney County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kearney County — the short answer
Kearney County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 330K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 330K 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 Kearney County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kearney County's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kearney County
Across a year, Kearney County accumulates about 3,035 growing degree days above 50°F, about 195 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 64 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 Kearney County
Across Kearney County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Holdrege, Kenesaw, and Valentine are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
64%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kearney County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Kearney County as well drained — but another 36% drains differently: 15% excessively drained, 11% somewhat poorly drained.
Holdrege is the most extensive named soil at 35% of mapped acres, then Kenesaw (13%) and Valentine (12%).
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 Kearney County
Each reading below is measured for Kearney 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 Kearney 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 Kearney County runs about pH 6.2–7.0, 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
MeasuredKearney County runs about 186 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
MeasuredKearney 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 Kearney County is in
Kearney 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 Kearney County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kearney County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 186-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 Kearney County?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Kearney County
USGS estimates 384,819 lb of Glyphosate on Kearney County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (233,841 lb) and Acephate (85,740 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 Kearney County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kearney County — 85 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Kearney County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kearney County
Closest first, across Kearney County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 6N 14W 6CB 1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- MINDEN TERMINAL IMPLEMENTBrownfields · 2500 ft
- PUMP 24Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROYAL PLASTICS MANUFACTURING COMPANYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FILL-N-CHILL #001Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1801Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KEARNEY COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NEBRASKA DEPT OF TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILSON AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AURORA COOP MINDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- J & J RENTALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KAAPA ETHANOL LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kearney 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 Kearney County.
Total Sites
85
across Kearney County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Kearney County
Severity Distribution
across Kearney County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kearney County, two things run higher than the national average across Kearney County — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (54 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 Kearney 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 Kearney County average
Your land is one point inside Kearney County
Everything above resolves to Kearney County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 330K 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 Kearney County Average
Kearney County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kearney County
- ●One soil character for all of Kearney County
- ●Frost dates read at Kearney County's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kearney County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kearney County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kearney County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kearney County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kearney County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kearney County average
How we know this about Kearney 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 Kearney County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kearney County
When does frost risk typically end in Kearney County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kearney County typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Kearney County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kearney County sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kearney County?
The federal record around Kearney County shows 85 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Kearney County's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kearney 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 Kearney County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Kearney County's own scale — its own ~186-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 85 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kearney County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kearney County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kearney CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 85 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kearney County's boundary and the 330,363 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kearney County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kearney 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 Kearney County — the ~186 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 Kearney County's 330,363 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 85 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 Kearney Countyread your own land →