Falls City, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Falls City, 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 Falls City 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 Falls City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Falls City — the short answer
Falls City, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Falls City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Falls City's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Falls City
Each reading below is measured for Falls City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFalls City runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFalls City 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 Falls City is in
Falls City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Falls City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richardson County.
What Grows in Falls City
Every plant below cleared Falls City's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Falls City?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Falls City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Falls City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SACRED HEART SCHOOLBrownfields · 950 ft
- FALLS CITY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- RICHARDSON COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SAPP BROS 66 FOOD PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HULLMAN'S FORD LINCOLN MERCURYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MR AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KWIK SHOP #648Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ARMBRUSTER MOTOR COBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1790Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CITY OF FALLS CITY POWER PLANTBrownfields · 2500 ft
- FALLS CITY BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COLORADO NATURALS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Falls City'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 Falls City.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Falls City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Falls City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Falls City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Falls City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Falls City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Falls City
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 Falls City average
Your land is one point inside Falls City
Everything above resolves to Falls City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Falls City Average
Falls City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Falls City
- ●One soil character for all of Falls City
- ●Frost dates read at Falls City's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Falls City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Falls City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Falls City, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Falls City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Falls City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Falls City average
How we know this about Falls City
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 Falls City’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 Falls City
When does frost risk typically end in Falls City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Falls City typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Falls City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Falls City typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Falls City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Falls City sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 9, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Falls City?
The federal record around Falls City shows 52 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Brownfields 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 Falls City?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Falls City's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Falls City'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 Falls City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Falls City's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,131 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Falls City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Falls City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 23 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Falls City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Falls City's boundary and the 2,131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Falls City'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 Falls City's 2,131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richardson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richardson 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 Richardson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Falls City's 2,131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Falls City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,131 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 Falls City-wide figureread your own land →