Ithaca, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Ithaca, 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 Ithaca 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 Ithaca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ithaca — the short answer
Ithaca, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 149 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 149 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 Ithaca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ithaca's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ithaca
Each reading below is measured for Ithaca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIthaca runs about 193 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
MeasuredIthaca 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 Ithaca is in
Ithaca sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ithaca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saunders County.
What Grows in Ithaca
Every plant below cleared Ithaca's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ithaca?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Ithaca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ithaca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14N 8E 22CB (LPN-1)Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 14N 8E 22CB (LPN-2)Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- MEAD PESTICIDE PITSSuperfund · 2.8 mi
- NE ARMY NAT'L GUARD, CAMP ASHLAND TRAINING SITEBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- TOMSICEK MANUFACTURING COBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA - ARDCCAFO · 3.6 mi
- NU AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & DEVBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- 14N 8E24ACD 2 MEADNitrate · 3.7 mi
- HAT CREEK ENTERPRISES LLCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- ALTEN, LLCSuperfund · 4.0 mi
- ALTEN, LLCBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- ALTEN, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ithaca'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 Ithaca.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ithaca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ithaca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ithaca, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ithaca — CAFO (5 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ithaca
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 Ithaca average
Your land is one point inside Ithaca
Everything above resolves to Ithaca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 149 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 Ithaca Average
Ithaca Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ithaca
- ●One soil character for all of Ithaca
- ●Frost dates read at Ithaca's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ithaca's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ithaca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ithaca, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ithaca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ithaca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ithaca average
How we know this about Ithaca
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 Ithaca’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 Ithaca
When does frost risk typically end in Ithaca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ithaca typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ithaca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ithaca typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ithaca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ithaca sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 6, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ithaca?
The federal record around Ithaca is a meaningful one — 63 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (22), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Ithaca?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ithaca's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ithaca'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 Ithaca’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ithaca's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 149 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ithaca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ithaca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 20 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ithaca, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ithaca's boundary and the 149 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ithaca'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 Ithaca's 149 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saunders County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saunders 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 Saunders County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ithaca's 149 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ithaca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 149 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Ithaca-wide figureread your own land →