Lancaster County, in 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Lancaster County lies within the Southeast Nebraska / Omaha-Lincoln Loess Corridor — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lancaster County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lancaster 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 Lancaster County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lancaster County — the short answer
Lancaster County, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 536K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 536K 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 6a is Lancaster County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lancaster County's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lancaster County
Across a year, Lancaster County accumulates about 3,275 growing degree days above 50°F, about 435 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 84 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 Lancaster County
Across Lancaster County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Wymore, Aksarben, and Pawnee are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
44%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lancaster County
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Lancaster County as moderately well drained — but another 45% drains differently: 38% well drained, 5% poorly drained.
Wymore is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Aksarben (18%) and Pawnee (11%).
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 Lancaster County
Each reading below is measured for Lancaster 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 Lancaster County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Lancaster County runs about pH 5.7–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLancaster County runs about 194 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
MeasuredLancaster County 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 Lancaster County is in
Lancaster County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Lancaster County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lancaster County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 194-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 Lancaster County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Lancaster County
- Japanese beetle7 documented records
- monarch butterfly567 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lancaster County
USGS estimates 300,467 lb of Glyphosate on Lancaster County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (124,864 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (103,656 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 Lancaster County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lancaster County — 785 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Superfund sites. 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 Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
Closest first, across Lancaster County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N 6E36CDD 1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- U STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PRESCOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KENNY'S DRY CLEANERSSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- PECHOUS UPHOLSTERING COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHERIDAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FAST BREAK SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BRYAN MEDICAL CENTER WESTCAMPUSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- INDIAN VILLAGE LAUNDROMATBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #0473Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- STATE OF NEBRASKA PUBLIC HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- NE STATE PATROL CRIME LABBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lancaster 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 Lancaster County.
Sources Checked
across Lancaster County
Severity Distribution
across Lancaster County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lancaster County, two things run higher than the national average across Lancaster County — Toxics Release Inventory (72 sites) and Superfund (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lancaster 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 Lancaster County average
Your land is one point inside Lancaster County
Everything above resolves to Lancaster County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 536K 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 Lancaster County Average
Lancaster County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lancaster County
- ●One soil character for all of Lancaster County
- ●Frost dates read at Lancaster County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lancaster County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lancaster County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lancaster County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lancaster County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lancaster County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lancaster County average
How we know this about Lancaster 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 Lancaster County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lancaster County
When does frost risk typically end in Lancaster County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lancaster County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Lancaster County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lancaster County sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 7, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lancaster County?
The federal record around Lancaster County is a meaningful one — 785 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (396), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Lancaster County's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lancaster 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 Lancaster County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lancaster County's own scale — its own ~194-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 785 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lancaster County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lancaster County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lancaster CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 785 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lancaster County's boundary and the 536,038 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lancaster County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lancaster County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lancaster 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 Lancaster County — the ~194 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 Lancaster County's 536,038 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 785 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 Lancaster Countyread your own land →