Papillion, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Papillion, 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 Papillion 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 Papillion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Papillion — the short answer
Papillion, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Papillion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Papillion's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Papillion
Each reading below is measured for Papillion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPapillion runs about 209 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
MeasuredPapillion 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 Papillion is in
Papillion sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Papillion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sarpy County.
What Grows in Papillion
Every plant below cleared Papillion's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Papillion?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Papillion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Papillion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14N 12E 33DC (P-136)Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 13N 12E 06AC (U-136)Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 13N 12E 3AB (D-145)Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- OPPD PAPILLION SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- OPPD PAPILLION SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SHAMROCK CONCRETE CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- CITY OF PAPILLION PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PAPILLION SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- KWIK SHOP #687Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- COLOR INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- GERALD THURMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CITY OF LAVISTABrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Papillion'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 Papillion.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Papillion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Papillion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Papillion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Papillion — Superfund (17 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (80 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Papillion
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 Papillion average
Your land is one point inside Papillion
Everything above resolves to Papillion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Papillion Average
Papillion Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Papillion
- ●One soil character for all of Papillion
- ●Frost dates read at Papillion's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Papillion's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Papillion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Papillion, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Papillion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Papillion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Papillion average
How we know this about Papillion
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 Papillion’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 Papillion
When does frost risk typically end in Papillion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Papillion typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Papillion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Papillion typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Papillion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Papillion sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Papillion?
The federal record around Papillion is a meaningful one — 1,075 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (569), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Papillion?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Papillion's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Papillion'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 Papillion’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Papillion's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,996 acres it covers and 1,075 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Papillion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Papillion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,075 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Papillion, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Papillion's boundary and the 7,996 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Papillion'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 Papillion's 7,996 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 Papillion's 7,996 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Papillion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,996 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Papillion-wide figureread your own land →