Crofton, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Crofton, 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 Crofton 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 Crofton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crofton — the short answer
Crofton, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 410 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 410 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 5a is Crofton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crofton's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crofton
Each reading below is measured for Crofton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrofton runs about 181 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
MeasuredCrofton 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 Crofton is in
Crofton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Crofton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Crofton
Every plant below cleared Crofton's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crofton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Crofton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crofton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KAYTON INTERNATIONAL INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- A & D SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- STEFFEN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 32N 2W23DD 1Nitrate · 2200 ft
- LEWIS & CLARK MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 32N 2W15DC 1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 31N 2W12A 1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- HERZOG FEEDLOTCAFO · 6.1 mi
- COUNTRY JIMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- WIEBELHAUS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- CHRISTENSEN BROTHERS PARTNERSHIP SITE C023Brownfields · 7.1 mi
- US ARMY CORPS ENGINEERS GAVINS POINT PROJECTBrownfields · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crofton'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 Crofton.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Crofton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crofton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crofton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crofton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crofton — CAFO (11 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Crofton
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 Crofton average
Your land is one point inside Crofton
Everything above resolves to Crofton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 410 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 city 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 Crofton Average
Crofton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Crofton
- ●One soil character for all of Crofton
- ●Frost dates read at Crofton's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crofton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crofton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crofton, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crofton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crofton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crofton average
How we know this about Crofton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crofton’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Crofton
When does frost risk typically end in Crofton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crofton typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Crofton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crofton typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crofton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crofton sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crofton?
The federal record around Crofton is a meaningful one — 42 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crofton?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crofton's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crofton'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 Crofton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crofton's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 410 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crofton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crofton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crofton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crofton's boundary and the 410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crofton'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 Crofton's 410 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crofton's 410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crofton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 410 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Crofton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaCrofton sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides