Indianola, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Indianola, 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 Indianola 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 Indianola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Indianola — the short answer
Indianola, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 799 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 799 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 Indianola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Indianola's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Indianola
Each reading below is measured for Indianola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIndianola runs about 187 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
MeasuredIndianola 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 Indianola is in
Indianola sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Indianola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Red Willow County.
What Grows in Indianola
Every plant below cleared Indianola's own zone 5b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Indianola?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Indianola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Indianola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 3N 27W 9AAAA2Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 3N 27W 9AAAA1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- N A TIMMERMAN INCCAFO · 3.7 mi
- BARTLEY CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- N.A. TIMMERMAN HEARTLANDCAFO · 6.3 mi
- 4N 27W16ABB 1 INDIANOLANitrate · 6.4 mi
- BARTLEY 66 STATION (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 3N 29W26BACB1Nitrate · 8.1 mi
- PFAS MCCOOK AIRPORTSuperfund · 8.7 mi
- NEBRASKA DEPT OF TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- POWERLINE DAIRY LLCCAFO · 9.5 mi
- RED WILLOW AVIATION SPRAYING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Indianola'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 Indianola.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Indianola
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Indianola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Indianola
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.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Indianola
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 Indianola average
Your land is one point inside Indianola
Everything above resolves to Indianola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 799 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 Indianola Average
Indianola Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Indianola
- ●One soil character for all of Indianola
- ●Frost dates read at Indianola's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Indianola's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Indianola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Indianola, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Indianola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Indianola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Indianola average
How we know this about Indianola
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 Indianola’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 Indianola
When does frost risk typically end in Indianola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Indianola typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Indianola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Indianola typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Indianola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Indianola sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 7, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Indianola?
The federal record around Indianola is a meaningful one — 20 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.0 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 Indianola?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Indianola's scale — its 5b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Indianola'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 Indianola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Indianola's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 799 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Indianola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Indianola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 21 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Indianola, the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Indianola's boundary and the 799 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Indianola's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Indianola's 799 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Red Willow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Red Willow 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 Red Willow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Indianola's 799 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Indianola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 799 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 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 Indianola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaIndianola sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.