McPherson County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
McPherson 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
McPherson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across McPherson 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 McPherson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McPherson County — the short answer
McPherson County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 550K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 550K 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 McPherson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McPherson County's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in McPherson County
Across a year, McPherson County accumulates about 2,507 growing degree days above 50°F, about 333 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 12 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 McPherson County
Across McPherson County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Valentine, Els, and Mullen are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across McPherson County
The USDA soil survey maps 95% of McPherson County as excessively drained — but another 5% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat excessively drained.
Valentine is the most extensive named soil at 92% of mapped acres, then Els (1%) and Mullen (1%).
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 McPherson County
Each reading below is measured for McPherson 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 McPherson 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 McPherson County runs about pH 6.5, 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
MeasuredMcPherson County runs about 170 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
MeasuredMcPherson 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 McPherson County is in
McPherson County sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in McPherson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against McPherson County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 170-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 McPherson County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 McPherson County
USGS estimates 3,072 lb of Glyphosate on McPherson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (1,431 lb) and Atrazine (1,185 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 McPherson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across McPherson County — 23 documented sites across 2 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 22 nitrate monitoring sites. Agricultural runoff and septic contamination — tracked at public water utilities (service-area exposure), private wells, and groundwater monitoring sites.
The federal record across McPherson County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near McPherson County
Closest first, across McPherson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCPHERSON CO. 1-765Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- MCPHERSON CO. 1-325Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- MCPHERSON CO. 1-545Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- MCPHERSON CO. 1-40Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 18N 32W 9BBCA1Nitrate · 8.5 mi
- NEAL OIL & AUTO CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- 19N 31W 7CBCB1Nitrate · 9.3 mi
- 19N 31W11BAD 1Nitrate · 13.6 mi
- 19N 31W12CAC 1Nitrate · 14.5 mi
- 18N 35W 5BB 1Nitrate · 14.7 mi
- 18N 31W32CA 1Nitrate · 15.4 mi
- 18N 30W17DA 1Nitrate · 19.0 mi
Measured from McPherson 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 McPherson County.
Severity Distribution
across McPherson County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in McPherson 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 McPherson County average
Your land is one point inside McPherson County
Everything above resolves to McPherson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 550K 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 McPherson County Average
McPherson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across McPherson County
- ●One soil character for all of McPherson County
- ●Frost dates read at McPherson County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McPherson County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in McPherson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McPherson County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McPherson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around McPherson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McPherson County average
How we know this about McPherson 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 McPherson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about McPherson County
When does frost risk typically end in McPherson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McPherson County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in McPherson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McPherson County sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McPherson County?
The federal record around McPherson County is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Nitrate record about 6.6 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at McPherson County's scale — its 5b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McPherson 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 McPherson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at McPherson County's own scale — its own ~170-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 23 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McPherson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McPherson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in McPherson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 23 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 6.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- McPherson County's boundary and the 549,925 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McPherson County sitting wholly inside the Nebraska Sand HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto McPherson 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 McPherson County — the ~170 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 McPherson County's 549,925 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 23 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 McPherson Countyread your own land →