Randolph, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Randolph, 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 Randolph 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 Randolph — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Randolph — the short answer
Randolph, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 688 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 688 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 Randolph's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Randolph's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Randolph
Each reading below is measured for Randolph itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRandolph runs about 178 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
MeasuredRandolph 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 Randolph is in
Randolph sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Randolph's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cedar County.
What Grows in Randolph
Every plant below cleared Randolph's own zone 5b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Randolph?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Randolph
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Randolph. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEYHRICH SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- RANDOLPH JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 850 ft
- RANDOLPH PRONTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BERNERS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- RANDOLPH FARM SUPPLY WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- NORTHEAST NEBRASKA FEEDERSCAFO · 3.5 mi
- NENF, LLCCAFO · 3.5 mi
- JERRYs HILLTOP SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 28N 1W15BBBB1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- KOEHLER FARMS SW28CAFO · 4.1 mi
- 5 STAR FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 4.3 mi
- CHARLES HASELHORST LIVESTOCKCAFO · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Randolph'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 Randolph.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Randolph
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Randolph, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Randolph — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (32 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 Randolph
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 Randolph average
Your land is one point inside Randolph
Everything above resolves to Randolph as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 688 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 Randolph Average
Randolph Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Randolph
- ●One soil character for all of Randolph
- ●Frost dates read at Randolph's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Randolph's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Randolph
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Randolph, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Randolph averages can't show:
We read public map data around Randolph — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Randolph average
How we know this about Randolph
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 Randolph’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 Randolph
When does frost risk typically end in Randolph?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Randolph?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Randolph?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Randolph sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 1, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Randolph?
The federal record around Randolph shows 52 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Randolph?
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 Randolph's scale — its 5b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Randolph'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 Randolph’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Randolph's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 688 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Randolph's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Randolph's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 15 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Randolph, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Randolph's boundary and the 688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Randolph'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 Randolph's 688 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cedar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cedar 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 Cedar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Randolph's 688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Randolph you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 688 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Randolph-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaRandolph sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.