Dodge, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Dodge, 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 Dodge 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 Dodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dodge — the short answer
Dodge, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 253 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 253 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 5b is Dodge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dodge's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dodge
Each reading below is measured for Dodge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDodge runs about 185 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
MeasuredDodge sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Dodge is in
Dodge sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dodge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dodge County.
What Grows in Dodge
Every plant below cleared Dodge's own zone 5b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dodge?
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 Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Dodge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dodge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COOPERATIVE SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DODGE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DODGE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LEPRINO FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- 20N 5E 6DADA1 CNBRLUSCR1 DO-21Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- PULSTAR MFG.Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- RUSKAMP FEEDYARDS, INCCAFO · 2.2 mi
- DANIEL RUSKAMP LIVESTOCKCAFO · 3.5 mi
- ERIC RUSKAMP LIVESTOCKCAFO · 3.5 mi
- KLUTHE PIG COMPANYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- 20N 5E 2DA 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- KROENKE FARM, INC.CAFO · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dodge'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 Dodge.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Dodge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dodge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dodge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dodge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dodge — CAFO (35 sites) and Nitrate (24 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 Dodge
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 Dodge average
Your land is one point inside Dodge
Everything above resolves to Dodge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 253 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 Dodge Average
Dodge Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Dodge
- ●One soil character for all of Dodge
- ●Frost dates read at Dodge's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dodge's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dodge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dodge, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dodge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dodge average
How we know this about Dodge
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 Dodge’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 Dodge
When does frost risk typically end in Dodge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dodge typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Dodge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dodge typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dodge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dodge sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 3, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dodge?
The federal record around Dodge shows 74 documented sites, mostly CAFO entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Dodge?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dodge's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dodge'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 Dodge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dodge's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 253 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dodge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dodge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 17 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dodge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dodge's boundary and the 253 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dodge'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 Dodge's 253 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dodge 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 Dodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dodge's 253 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dodge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 253 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dodge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaDodge sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides