Ohiowa, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ohiowa, 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 Ohiowa 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 Ohiowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ohiowa — the short answer
Ohiowa, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 159 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 159 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 6a is Ohiowa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ohiowa's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ohiowa
Each reading below is measured for Ohiowa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOhiowa runs about 197 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
MeasuredOhiowa sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Ohiowa is in
Ohiowa sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ohiowa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fillmore County.
What Grows in Ohiowa
Every plant below cleared Ohiowa's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ohiowa?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Ohiowa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ohiowa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOTTs AUTO CLINIC (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - OHIOWAUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 5N 1W 8BA 1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 5N 1W16CCAC1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 5N 1W 3DC 1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 4N 1W 2CD 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- BARTLES SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- KASSIK MILLING COMPANYBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - MILLIGANUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- TALLGRASS INTERSTATE GAS TRANSMISSION LLC - MILLIGAN TBSBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- OLIVA CONST COUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 5N 2W 7DBDC1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ohiowa'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 Ohiowa.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ohiowa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ohiowa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Ohiowa. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ohiowa
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 Ohiowa average
Your land is one point inside Ohiowa
Everything above resolves to Ohiowa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 159 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 Ohiowa Average
Ohiowa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ohiowa
- ●One soil character for all of Ohiowa
- ●Frost dates read at Ohiowa's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ohiowa's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ohiowa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ohiowa, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ohiowa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ohiowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ohiowa average
How we know this about Ohiowa
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 Ohiowa’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 Ohiowa
When does frost risk typically end in Ohiowa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ohiowa typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Ohiowa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ohiowa typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ohiowa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ohiowa sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 8, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ohiowa?
The federal record around Ohiowa is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ohiowa?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ohiowa's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ohiowa'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 Ohiowa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ohiowa's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 159 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ohiowa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ohiowa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 22 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ohiowa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ohiowa's boundary and the 159 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ohiowa's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ohiowa's 159 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fillmore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fillmore 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 Fillmore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ohiowa's 159 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ohiowa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 159 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ohiowa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaOhiowa sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.