Scotts Bluff County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Scotts Bluff County lies within the Nebraska Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Scotts Bluff County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scotts Bluff County — the short answer
Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 473K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 473K 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 5a is Scotts Bluff County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotts Bluff County's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Scotts Bluff County
Across a year, Scotts Bluff County accumulates about 2,503 growing degree days above 50°F, about 337 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 11 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 Scotts Bluff County
Across Scotts Bluff County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Mitchell, Tripp, and Bridget are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Scotts Bluff County
The USDA soil survey maps 72% of Scotts Bluff County as well drained — but another 26% drains differently: 10% somewhat poorly drained, 7% excessively drained.
Mitchell is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Tripp (8%) and Bridget (7%).
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 Scotts Bluff County
Each reading below is measured for Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredScotts Bluff County runs about 165 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
MeasuredScotts Bluff County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Scotts Bluff County is in
Scotts Bluff County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Scotts Bluff County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Scotts Bluff County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 165-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 Scotts Bluff County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Scotts Bluff County
- monarch butterfly29 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Scotts Bluff County
USGS estimates 150,680 lb of Glyphosate on Scotts Bluff County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (37,131 lb) and Dicamba (27,362 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 Scotts Bluff County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Scotts Bluff County — 245 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (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 Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County
Closest first, across Scotts Bluff County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TITAN MACHINERY - SCOTTSBLUFFBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SINCLAIR SUPER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SCOTTS BLUFF NATIONAL MONUMENTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- PANHANDLE COOP PLAZA STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PANHANDLE COOP CAR CARE CENTERBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CHEEMAS GAS & LIQUORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PANHANDLE COOPERATIVE FERTILIZERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC - WNB3Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- STROM'S INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- MARVIN BARTELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE 556Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- NEBRASKA TRANSPORT CO INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County.
Total Sites
245
across Scotts Bluff County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Scotts Bluff County
Severity Distribution
across Scotts Bluff County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scotts Bluff County, two things run higher than the national average across Scotts Bluff County — CAFO (19 sites) and Nitrate (116 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County average
Your land is one point inside Scotts Bluff County
Everything above resolves to Scotts Bluff County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 473K 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 Scotts Bluff County Average
Scotts Bluff County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Scotts Bluff County
- ●One soil character for all of Scotts Bluff County
- ●Frost dates read at Scotts Bluff County's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotts Bluff County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Scotts Bluff County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotts Bluff County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotts Bluff County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotts Bluff County average
How we know this about Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Scotts Bluff County
When does frost risk typically end in Scotts Bluff County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotts Bluff County typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Scotts Bluff County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotts Bluff County sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 27, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotts Bluff County?
The federal record around Scotts Bluff County is a meaningful one — 245 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (116), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Scotts Bluff County's scale — its 5a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Scotts Bluff County's own scale — its own ~165-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 245 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotts Bluff County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scotts Bluff County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Scotts Bluff CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 245 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Scotts Bluff County's boundary and the 473,357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Scotts Bluff County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Scotts Bluff County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County — the ~165 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 Scotts Bluff County's 473,357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 245 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 Scotts Bluff Countyread your own land →