Holstein, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Holstein, 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 Holstein 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 Holstein — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Holstein — the short answer
Holstein, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 162 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 162 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 Holstein's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holstein's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holstein
Each reading below is measured for Holstein itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHolstein runs about 191 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
MeasuredHolstein 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 Holstein is in
Holstein sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Holstein's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Holstein
Every plant below cleared Holstein's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holstein?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Holstein
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holstein. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MID-NEBRASKA LUBRICANTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 6N 12W27AA 1Nitrate · 600 ft
- 6N 12W27AB 1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 6N 11W17CB 1 ROSELANDNitrate · 3.5 mi
- SILVER LAKE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- AURORA COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 7N 12W24CC 1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- KCC FEEDING, INC. - NORMAN YARDCAFO · 6.5 mi
- TRAILBLAZER PIPELINE CO - COMPRESSOR STATION 603Brownfields · 7.5 mi
- 6N 13W16CD 1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- 6N 13W16CC 1Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- KCC FEEDING, INC. - MAIN YARDCAFO · 8.1 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holstein'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 Holstein.
Total Sites
22
within ~10 miles of Holstein
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holstein
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holstein
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Holstein
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 Holstein average
Your land is one point inside Holstein
Everything above resolves to Holstein as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 162 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 Holstein Average
Holstein Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Holstein
- ●One soil character for all of Holstein
- ●Frost dates read at Holstein's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holstein's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holstein
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holstein, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holstein averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holstein — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holstein average
How we know this about Holstein
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 Holstein’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 Holstein
When does frost risk typically end in Holstein?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holstein typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Holstein?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holstein typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holstein?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holstein sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 8, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holstein?
The federal record around Holstein is light — 22 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Holstein?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holstein's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holstein'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 Holstein’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Holstein's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 162 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holstein's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holstein's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 22 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holstein, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holstein's boundary and the 162 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holstein's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holstein's 162 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holstein's 162 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holstein you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 162 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Holstein-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaHolstein sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.