Nemaha County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Nemaha 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
Nemaha County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Nemaha 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 Nemaha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nemaha County — the short answer
Nemaha County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 261K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 261K 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 Nemaha County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nemaha County's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Nemaha County
Across a year, Nemaha County accumulates about 3,400 growing degree days above 50°F, about 560 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 91 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 Nemaha County
Across Nemaha County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Wymore, Yutan, and Pohocco are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
44%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Nemaha County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Nemaha County as well drained — but another 51% drains differently: 36% moderately well drained, 7% poorly drained.
Wymore is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Yutan (14%) and Pohocco (10%).
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 Nemaha County
Each reading below is measured for Nemaha 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 Nemaha 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 Nemaha County runs about pH 6.0–6.6, 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
MeasuredNemaha County runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNemaha 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 Nemaha County is in
Nemaha 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 Nemaha County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Nemaha County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 202-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 Nemaha 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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What gets applied to farmland in Nemaha County
USGS estimates 210,661 lb of Glyphosate on Nemaha County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (90,054 lb) and Acephate (84,637 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 Nemaha County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Nemaha County — 44 documented sites across 6 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 Nemaha 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 Nemaha County
Closest first, across Nemaha County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 5N 14E 21 BC (N-3)Nitrate · 1100 ft
- AUBURN BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AUBURN GENERATING PLANTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- AVENUE APTSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CARSON NATIONAL BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ANDREW MYERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BENNETTS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FAST GLOBAL SOLUTIONS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FAST GLOBAL SOLUTIONSToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FAST GLOBAL SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CONOCO STATION (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1752Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nemaha 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 Nemaha County.
Total Sites
44
across Nemaha County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Nemaha County
Severity Distribution
across Nemaha County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nemaha County, two things run higher than the national average across Nemaha County — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Nemaha 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 Nemaha County average
Your land is one point inside Nemaha County
Everything above resolves to Nemaha County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 261K 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 Nemaha County Average
Nemaha County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Nemaha County
- ●One soil character for all of Nemaha County
- ●Frost dates read at Nemaha County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nemaha County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Nemaha County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nemaha County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nemaha County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nemaha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nemaha County average
How we know this about Nemaha 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 Nemaha County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Nemaha County
When does frost risk typically end in Nemaha County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nemaha County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
How long is the growing season in Nemaha County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nemaha County sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 11, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nemaha County?
The federal record around Nemaha County is a meaningful one — 44 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), 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 Nemaha County's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nemaha 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 Nemaha County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Nemaha County's own scale — its own ~202-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 44 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nemaha County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nemaha County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Nemaha CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 44 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Nemaha County's boundary and the 260,672 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Nemaha County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Nemaha 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 Nemaha County — the ~202 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 Nemaha County's 260,672 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 44 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 Nemaha Countyread your own land →