Peru, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peru, 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 Peru 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 Peru — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peru — the short answer
Peru, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 337 acres of city.
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 337 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 Peru's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peru's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peru
Each reading below is measured for Peru itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeru runs about 204 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
MeasuredPeru 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 Peru is in
Peru sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Peru's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nemaha County.
What Grows in Peru
Every plant below cleared Peru's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peru?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Peru
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peru. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PERU STATE COLLEGEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1600Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PERU STATE COLLEGE/PHYSICAL PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- T66N R42W 22AAC1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- WATSON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- T65N R42W 15ADD1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- MELLAGE TRUCK AND TRACTOR INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- T65N R42W 33CDB1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- T67N R43W 35AAA1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- T65N R42W 33DAA1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- T67N R42W 32BBB1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- DOH PROJECT WELL 29; ATCHISON CO 223 (MCHI)Nitrate · 7.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peru'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 Peru.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Peru
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peru
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peru
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peru, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Peru — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Peru
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 Peru average
Your land is one point inside Peru
Everything above resolves to Peru as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 337 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 Peru Average
Peru Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Peru
- ●One soil character for all of Peru
- ●Frost dates read at Peru's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peru's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peru
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peru, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peru averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peru — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peru average
How we know this about Peru
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 Peru’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 Peru
When does frost risk typically end in Peru?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peru 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 Peru?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peru typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peru?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peru sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 13, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peru?
The federal record around Peru shows 74 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Peru?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peru's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peru'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 Peru’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Peru's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 337 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peru's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peru's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 27 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peru, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peru's boundary and the 337 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peru'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 Peru's 337 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nemaha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nemaha 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 Nemaha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peru's 337 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peru you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 337 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Peru-wide figureread your own land →