Nance County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Nance County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Nance 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 Nance County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nance County — the short answer
Nance County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 283K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 283K 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 Nance County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nance County's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Nance County
Across a year, Nance County accumulates about 2,920 growing degree days above 50°F, about 80 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 54 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 Nance County
Across Nance County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Coly, Uly, and Hall are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.3, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
35%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Nance County
The USDA soil survey maps 78% of Nance County as well drained — but another 20% drains differently: 9% somewhat poorly drained, 4% somewhat excessively drained.
Coly is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Uly (11%) and Hall (9%).
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 Nance County
Each reading below is measured for Nance 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 Nance County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Nance County runs about pH 6.5–7.3, 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
MeasuredNance County runs about 185 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
MeasuredNance 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 Nance County is in
Nance 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 Nance County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Nance County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 185-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 Nance 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 18 — 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 Nance County
USGS estimates 133,352 lb of Glyphosate on Nance County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (72,618 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (51,724 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 Nance County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Nance County — 63 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 concentrated animal feeding operation. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Nance 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 Nance County
Closest first, across Nance County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17N 6W27AA 1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 16N 6W 1BD 1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 17N 6W23DAC 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 16N 6W 1CC 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- STREETERS HOME TOWN (Former)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- R & A AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- HAROLDS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- BILLs SERVICE (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2656Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PAPPYs PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MALANDER FEEDYARDS, LLCCAFO · 4.3 mi
- 17N 5W 7CC 1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nance 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 Nance County.
Total Sites
63
across Nance County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
across Nance County
Severity Distribution
across Nance County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nance County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites across Nance County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Nance 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 Nance County average
Your land is one point inside Nance County
Everything above resolves to Nance County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 283K 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 Nance County Average
Nance County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Nance County
- ●One soil character for all of Nance County
- ●Frost dates read at Nance County's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nance County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Nance County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nance County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nance County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nance County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nance County average
How we know this about Nance 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 Nance County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Nance County
When does frost risk typically end in Nance County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nance 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 Nance County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nance County sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 4, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nance County?
The federal record around Nance County shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Nance County's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nance 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 Nance County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Nance County's own scale — its own ~185-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 63 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nance County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nance County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Nance CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 63 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Nance County's boundary and the 282,621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Nance County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Nance 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 Nance County — the ~185 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 Nance County's 282,621 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 63 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 Nance Countyread your own land →