Octavia, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Octavia, 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 Octavia 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 Octavia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Octavia — the short answer
Octavia, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 105 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 105 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 Octavia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Octavia's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Octavia
Each reading below is measured for Octavia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOctavia 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
MeasuredOctavia 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 Octavia is in
Octavia sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Octavia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butler County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Octavia
Every plant below cleared Octavia'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 Octavia?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Octavia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Octavia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16N 3E22AA 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 16N 3E14BC 1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 16N 3E13AB 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 16N 3E10AD 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 16N 3E 2DA 1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 16N 4E 6DD 1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 16N 3E19BC 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 17N 4E31CD 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 17N 4E32BD 1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- LITTLE PINE RIDGE FEEDYARD INCCAFO · 5.1 mi
- 17N 3E29AA 2Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- TIMBERLINE ENERGY, LLCBrownfields · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Octavia'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 Octavia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Octavia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Octavia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Octavia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Octavia — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (42 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.
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 Octavia
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 Octavia average
Your land is one point inside Octavia
Everything above resolves to Octavia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 105 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 Octavia Average
Octavia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Octavia
- ●One soil character for all of Octavia
- ●Frost dates read at Octavia's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Octavia's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Octavia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Octavia, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Octavia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Octavia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Octavia average
How we know this about Octavia
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 Octavia’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 Octavia
When does frost risk typically end in Octavia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Octavia typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Octavia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Octavia typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Octavia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Octavia sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 5, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Octavia?
The federal record around Octavia is a meaningful one — 76 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Octavia?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Octavia's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Octavia'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 Octavia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Octavia's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 105 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Octavia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Octavia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 19 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Octavia, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Octavia's boundary and the 105 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Octavia sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Octavia's 105 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Octavia's 105 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Octavia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 105 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Octavia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaOctavia sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides