Foster, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Foster, 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 Foster 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 Foster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Foster — the short answer
Foster, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 143 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- 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
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 143 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 Foster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Foster's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Foster
Each reading below is measured for Foster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFoster runs about 178 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
MeasuredFoster 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 Foster is in
Foster sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Foster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pierce County.
What Grows in Foster
Every plant below cleared Foster's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Foster?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (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 Foster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Foster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUSKER AG ETHANOL PLANT, LLCBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- HUSKER AG ETHANOL PLANT, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 5.7 mi
- GERHOLD CONCRETE CO OSMOND PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 5.7 mi
- PIERCE COUNTY FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 6.2 mi
- 28N 3W33BA 1 OSMONDNitrate · 6.2 mi
- COUNTRY PLAZA AUTO BODYBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- OSMOND OIL COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- 27N 4W 9DD 1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- OSMOND MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- ERIC & JUDITH VAN OSTBERGUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- CATTLEMAN'S FEEDYARDCAFO · 6.8 mi
- M-C FEEDERSCAFO · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Foster'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 Foster.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Foster
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Foster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Foster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Foster, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Foster — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (48 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 Foster
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 Foster average
Your land is one point inside Foster
Everything above resolves to Foster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 143 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 Foster Average
Foster Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Foster
- ●One soil character for all of Foster
- ●Frost dates read at Foster's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Foster's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Foster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Foster, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Foster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Foster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Foster average
How we know this about Foster
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 Foster’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 Foster
When does frost risk typically end in Foster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Foster typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Foster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Foster 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Foster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Foster sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Foster?
The federal record around Foster is a meaningful one — 81 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Brownfields record about 5.7 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 Foster?
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 Foster's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Foster'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 Foster’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Foster's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 143 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Foster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Foster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 16 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Foster, the closest Brownfields record about 5.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Foster's boundary and the 143 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Foster'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 Foster's 143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Foster's 143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Foster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 143 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 5.7 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 Foster-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaFoster sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.