Prague, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prague, 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 Prague 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 Prague — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Prague — the short answer
Prague, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 209 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 209 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 Prague's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prague's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prague
Each reading below is measured for Prague itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrague runs about 191 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
MeasuredPrague 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 Prague is in
Prague sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Prague's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saunders County.
What Grows in Prague
Every plant below cleared Prague's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prague?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Prague
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prague. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRAGUE QUIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ROBERT & SANDRA MURRAY PROPERTYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- DONALD CEJKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MALMO GRAIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- 14N 5E12AC 1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- WEST ON 92 BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- WESTON PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- BRUNO CO-OP ASSOCIATION/ASSOCIATED PROPERTIESSuperfund · 8.0 mi
- FREMONT STREETSuperfund · 8.1 mi
- THOMAS HRUZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- 17N 5E30AA 1Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 17N 6E19AB 1Nitrate · 8.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prague'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 Prague.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prague
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prague
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prague, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Prague. 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 Prague
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 Prague average
Your land is one point inside Prague
Everything above resolves to Prague as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 209 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 Prague Average
Prague Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Prague
- ●One soil character for all of Prague
- ●Frost dates read at Prague's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prague's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prague
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prague, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prague averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prague — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prague average
How we know this about Prague
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 Prague’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 Prague
When does frost risk typically end in Prague?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prague typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Prague?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prague typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prague?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prague sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 5, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prague?
The federal record around Prague is a meaningful one — 31 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Prague?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prague's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prague'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 Prague’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prague's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 209 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prague's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prague's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 19 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prague, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prague's boundary and the 209 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prague'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 Prague's 209 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saunders County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saunders 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 Saunders County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prague's 209 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prague you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 209 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 Prague-wide figureread your own land →