Crab Orchard, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crab Orchard, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crab Orchard lot. 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 Crab Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crab Orchard — the short answer
Crab Orchard, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 102 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 102 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Crab Orchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crab Orchard's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crab Orchard
Each reading below is measured for Crab Orchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrab Orchard 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
MeasuredCrab Orchard 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 Crab Orchard is in
Crab Orchard sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Crab Orchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnson County.
What Grows in Crab Orchard
Every plant below cleared Crab Orchard's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crab Orchard?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Crab Orchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crab Orchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 4N 8E11DA 1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 5N 10E19AB 1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 5N 10E19AB 2Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- LEWISTON CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - FILLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 5N 10E21DD 1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- SUNNY YOLK FARMS INCCAFO · 7.8 mi
- 5N 10E23D 1Nitrate · 9.2 mi
- JET STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- ADAMS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- ADAMS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
Measured from Crab Orchard'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 Crab Orchard.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Crab Orchard
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crab Orchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crab Orchard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Crab Orchard
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 Crab Orchard average
Your land is one point inside Crab Orchard
Everything above resolves to Crab Orchard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 102 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crab Orchard Average
Crab Orchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Crab Orchard
- ●One soil character for all of Crab Orchard
- ●Frost dates read at Crab Orchard's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crab Orchard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crab Orchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crab Orchard, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crab Orchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crab Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crab Orchard average
How we know this about Crab Orchard
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crab Orchard’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crab Orchard
When does frost risk typically end in Crab Orchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crab Orchard typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Crab Orchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crab Orchard typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crab Orchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crab Orchard sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 10, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crab Orchard?
The federal record around Crab Orchard is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crab Orchard?
From about Sep 24 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crab Orchard's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crab Orchard's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crab Orchard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crab Orchard's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 102 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crab Orchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crab Orchard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 24 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crab Orchard, the closest Nitrate record about 3.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crab Orchard's boundary and the 102 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 ecoregion at Crab Orchard's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crab Orchard's 102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson County
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crab Orchard's 102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crab Orchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.4 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crab Orchard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaCrab Orchard sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.