Saline County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Saline County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Saline 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 Saline County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Saline County — the short answer
Saline County, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 367K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 367K 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 Saline County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saline County's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Saline County
Across a year, Saline County accumulates about 3,207 growing degree days above 50°F, about 367 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 82 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 Saline County
Across Saline County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Crete, Muir, and Hobbs are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7–6.1, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
71%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Saline County
The USDA soil survey maps 47% of Saline County as well drained — but another 52% drains differently: 46% moderately well drained, 4% somewhat poorly drained.
Crete is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Muir (9%) and Hobbs (8%).
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 Saline County
Each reading below is measured for Saline 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 Saline 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 Saline County runs about pH 5.7–6.1, 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
MeasuredSaline County runs about 199 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
MeasuredSaline 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 Saline County is in
Saline County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (90%) and Western Corn Belt Plains (10%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Saline County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Saline County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 199-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 Saline County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What gets applied to farmland in Saline County
USGS estimates 343,694 lb of Glyphosate on Saline County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (164,740 lb) and Acetochlor (136,616 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 Saline County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Saline County — 93 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Saline 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 Saline County
Closest first, across Saline County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7N 3E30AD 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 6N 3E14DCC 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 6N 2E20AB 1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 7N 2E20BAB 1Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 7N 2E30BAA 1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 7N 2E 9AAB 1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- STEHLIK 48Toxics Release Inventory · 6.5 mi
- 7N 3E12ADDD1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- 6N 1E14DC 1Nitrate · 8.2 mi
- 5N 2E 8DD 1Nitrate · 8.7 mi
- WEBER FEEDYARDS, LLCCAFO · 8.8 mi
- WILBER-CLATONIA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 8.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saline 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 Saline County.
Total Sites
93
across Saline County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Saline County
Severity Distribution
across Saline County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saline County, two things run higher than the national average across Saline County — CAFO (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Saline 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 Saline County average
Your land is one point inside Saline County
Everything above resolves to Saline County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 367K 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 Saline County Average
Saline County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Saline County
- ●One soil character for all of Saline County
- ●Frost dates read at Saline County's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saline County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Saline County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saline County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saline County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saline County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saline County average
How we know this about Saline 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 Saline County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Saline County
When does frost risk typically end in Saline County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saline County typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Saline County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saline County sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 9, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saline County?
The federal record around Saline County shows 93 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.1 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 Saline County's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saline 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 Saline County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Saline County's own scale — its own ~199-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 93 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saline County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saline County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Saline CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 93 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Saline County's boundary and the 367,405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Saline County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Saline 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 Saline County — the ~199 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 Saline County's 367,405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 93 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 Saline Countyread your own land →