Ord, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ord, 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 Ord 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 Ord — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ord — the short answer
Ord, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Ord's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ord's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ord
Each reading below is measured for Ord itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrd runs about 174 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
MeasuredOrd 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 Ord is in
Ord sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ord's own centroid rather than borrowed from Valley County.
What Grows in Ord
Every plant below cleared Ord's own zone 5b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ord?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Ord
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ord. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORD PUBLIC SCHOOL DIST 5/BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1743Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPALDING COOP dba COUNTRY PARTNERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ORD EQUIPMENT INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ORD PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TROTTERS WHOA & GO EXPRESS IVUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NEBRASK MACHINERY COMPANYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PUMP & PANTRY #17Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PETERSON FARMS INC. - NORTHCAFO · 1.1 mi
- VANs SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VALLEY COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BIG E'Z BACKGROUNDING INCCAFO · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ord'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 Ord.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Ord
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ord
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ord
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ord, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ord — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ord
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 Ord average
Your land is one point inside Ord
Everything above resolves to Ord 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 city 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 Ord Average
Ord Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ord
- ●One soil character for all of Ord
- ●Frost dates read at Ord's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ord's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ord
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ord, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ord averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ord — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ord average
How we know this about Ord
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ord’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ord
When does frost risk typically end in Ord?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ord typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Ord?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ord typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ord?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ord sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 1, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ord?
The federal record around Ord is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Ord?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ord's scale — its 5b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ord'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 Ord’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ord's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,380 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ord's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ord's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 15 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ord, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ord's boundary and the 1,380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ord's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ord's 1,380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Valley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Valley 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 Valley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ord's 1,380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ord you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,380 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ord-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaOrd sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides