Sioux County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Sioux 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
Sioux County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sioux 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 Sioux County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sioux County — the short answer
Sioux County, Nebraska: USDA zone 4b, about 134 days between hard freezes, across 1.3M acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~134
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.3M 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 4b is Sioux County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sioux County's 134-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sioux County
Across a year, Sioux County accumulates about 1,989 growing degree days above 50°F, about 851 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — no other Nebraska county banks fewer. 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 Sioux County
Across Sioux County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Valent, Tassel, and Busher are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy very fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.9–7.7, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sioux County
The USDA soil survey maps 78% of Sioux County as well drained — but another 22% drains differently: 19% excessively drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Valent is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Tassel (14%) and Busher (12%).
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 Sioux County
Each reading below is measured for Sioux 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 Sioux County are well 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 Sioux County runs about pH 6.9–7.7, 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
MeasuredSioux County runs about 134 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSioux County sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Sioux County is in
Sioux County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (81%) and Northwestern Great Plains (19%). 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 Sioux County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sioux County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 134-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 Sioux 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 Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Documented around Sioux County
- monarch butterfly10 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sioux County
USGS estimates 27,891 lb of Glyphosate on Sioux County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (6,088 lb) and Dicamba (5,226 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 Sioux County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sioux County — 104 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Sioux 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 Sioux County
Closest first, across Sioux County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 28N 54W 6BC 2Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 29N 53W19BA 1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- 27N 57W12AC 1Nitrate · 13.7 mi
- 27N 56W36DDCD1Nitrate · 14.7 mi
- SIOUX COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 16.6 mi
- LOTTONS SERVICE AND REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 17.0 mi
- 26N 56W 6BB 1Nitrate · 17.1 mi
- SCOTTSBLUFF, CITY OFPFAS · 26.7 mi
- 25N 57W35DCDD1Nitrate · 28.4 mi
- 25N 57W19DCDD1Nitrate · 28.4 mi
- 24N 55W22DB 1Nitrate · 30.0 mi
- 24N 57W17AAAD1Nitrate · 30.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sioux 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 Sioux County.
Total Sites
104
across Sioux County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Sioux County
Severity Distribution
across Sioux County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sioux County, two things run higher than the national average across Sioux County — Nitrate (98 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Sioux 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 Sioux County average
Your land is one point inside Sioux County
Everything above resolves to Sioux County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.3M 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 Sioux County Average
Sioux County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Sioux County
- ●One soil character for all of Sioux County
- ●Frost dates read at Sioux County's scale: May 14 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sioux County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sioux County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sioux County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sioux County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sioux County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sioux County average
How we know this about Sioux 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 Sioux County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sioux County
When does frost risk typically end in Sioux County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sioux County typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
How long is the growing season in Sioux County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sioux County sees about 134 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 11, about 99 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sioux County?
The federal record around Sioux County shows 104 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (98), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.0 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Sioux County?
With about 134 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sioux County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 162 to 190 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Sioux County's scale — its 4b band and its 134-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sioux 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 Sioux County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sioux County's own scale — its own ~134-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 104 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sioux County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sioux County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~134-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sioux CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 104 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 4.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sioux County's boundary and the 1,322,702 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~134-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Sioux County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sioux County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sioux 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 Sioux County — the ~134 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 Sioux County's 1,322,702 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 104 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 Sioux Countyread your own land →