Odessa, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Odessa, 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 Odessa 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 Odessa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Odessa — the short answer
Odessa, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 1K 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 Odessa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Odessa's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Odessa
Each reading below is measured for Odessa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOdessa 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
MeasuredOdessa 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 Odessa is in
Odessa sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Odessa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buffalo County.
What Grows in Odessa
Every plant below cleared Odessa'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 Odessa?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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. 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 Odessa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Odessa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 9N 18W13DBBA1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 8N 17W33BA 1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- KEARNEY AREA SOLID WASTE AGENCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- 8N 18W15DA 1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 9N 18W27CC 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 9N 18W28ADC 1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- PUMP & PANTRY #30Underground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- MWI ANIMAL HEALTHBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT INCBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- CHS AGRI SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- GD CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- CHS AGRI SERVICE CENTER BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Odessa'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 Odessa.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Odessa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Odessa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Odessa
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Odessa
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 Odessa average
Your land is one point inside Odessa
Everything above resolves to Odessa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Odessa Average
Odessa Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Odessa
- ●One soil character for all of Odessa
- ●Frost dates read at Odessa's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Odessa's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Odessa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Odessa, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Odessa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Odessa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Odessa average
How we know this about Odessa
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 Odessa’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 Odessa
When does frost risk typically end in Odessa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Odessa 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 Odessa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Odessa 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 Odessa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Odessa 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 Odessa?
The federal record around Odessa is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.9 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 Odessa?
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 Odessa's scale — its 5b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Odessa'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 Odessa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Odessa's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,167 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Odessa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Odessa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 21 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Odessa, the closest Nitrate record about 4.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Odessa's boundary and the 1,167 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 Odessa's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Odessa's 1,167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buffalo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buffalo 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 Buffalo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Odessa's 1,167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Odessa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,167 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 4.9 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 Odessa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Growing region