Offutt AFB, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Offutt AFB, 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 Offutt AFB 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 Offutt AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Offutt AFB — the short answer
Offutt AFB, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Offutt AFB's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Offutt AFB's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Offutt AFB
Each reading below is measured for Offutt AFB itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOffutt AFB runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOffutt AFB 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 Offutt AFB is in
Offutt AFB sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Offutt AFB's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sarpy County.
What Grows in Offutt AFB
Every plant below cleared Offutt AFB's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Offutt AFB?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Offutt AFB
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Offutt AFB. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US AIR FORCE OFFUTT AFB NEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- US AIR FORCE OFFUTT AFB NESuperfund · 0.6 mi
- US AIR FORCE OFFUTT AFB NEToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY - CAPEHART TERMINALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- KWIK SHOP #670Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #3154Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- FORMER MARTINIZING DRY CLEANING PLANTSuperfund · 1.2 mi
- FORMER ONE-HOUR MARTINIZING LOCATION #1Superfund · 1.2 mi
- BELLEVUE SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- KUM & GO #373Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BEARDMORE SPECIALTY AUTOBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BELLEVUE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TRANS FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Offutt AFB'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 Offutt AFB.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Offutt AFB
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Offutt AFB
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Offutt AFB, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Offutt AFB — Superfund (20 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (93 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Offutt AFB
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 Offutt AFB average
Your land is one point inside Offutt AFB
Everything above resolves to Offutt AFB as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Offutt AFB Average
Offutt AFB Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Offutt AFB
- ●One soil character for all of Offutt AFB
- ●Frost dates read at Offutt AFB's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Offutt AFB's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Offutt AFB
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Offutt AFB, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Offutt AFB averages can't show:
We read public map data around Offutt AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Offutt AFB average
How we know this about Offutt AFB
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 Offutt AFB’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 Offutt AFB
When does frost risk typically end in Offutt AFB?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Offutt AFB typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Offutt AFB?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Offutt AFB typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Offutt AFB?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Offutt AFB sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 11, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Offutt AFB?
The federal record around Offutt AFB is a meaningful one — 983 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (455), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Offutt AFB?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Offutt AFB's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Offutt AFB'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 Offutt AFB’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Offutt AFB's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,538 acres it covers and 983 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Offutt AFB's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Offutt AFB's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 25 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 983 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Offutt AFB, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Offutt AFB's boundary and the 2,538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Offutt AFB'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 Offutt AFB's 2,538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sarpy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sarpy 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 Sarpy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Offutt AFB's 2,538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Offutt AFB you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,538 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Offutt AFB-wide figureread your own land →