Rising City, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Rising City, 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 Rising City 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 Rising City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rising City — the short answer
Rising City, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 230 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 230 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 Rising City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rising City's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rising City
Each reading below is measured for Rising City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRising City runs about 190 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
MeasuredRising City 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 Rising City is in
Rising City sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rising City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butler County.
What Grows in Rising City
Every plant below cleared Rising City's own zone 5b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rising City?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Rising City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rising City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN GRAFF ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 15N 1E27DDDD2 RISINGNitrate · 2.6 mi
- 15N 1E27DD 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- SUMMIT CALF RANCHCAFO · 3.1 mi
- GOLDEN WEST FEEDYARDS, INCCAFO · 4.9 mi
- 14N 1W23CCA1 NE-LNC-SWR-ANitrate · 5.9 mi
- CUBBYs SHELBYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- FRONTIER COOPERATIVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- DOUBLE DUTCH DAIRYCAFO · 7.1 mi
- BUTLER COUNTY DAIRY, LLCCAFO · 7.3 mi
- GRASS VALLEY FARMS, INC.CAFO · 7.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rising City'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 Rising City.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Rising City
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rising City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rising City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rising City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rising City — CAFO (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Rising City
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 Rising City average
Your land is one point inside Rising City
Everything above resolves to Rising City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 230 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 Rising City Average
Rising City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Rising City
- ●One soil character for all of Rising City
- ●Frost dates read at Rising City's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rising City's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rising City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rising City, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rising City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rising City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rising City average
How we know this about Rising City
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 Rising City’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 Rising City
When does frost risk typically end in Rising City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rising City typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Rising City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rising City 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rising City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rising City sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 5, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rising City?
The federal record around Rising City is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Rising City?
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 Rising City's scale — its 5b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rising City'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 Rising City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rising City's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 230 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rising City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rising City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 19 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rising City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rising City's boundary and the 230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rising City's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rising City's 230 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rising City's 230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rising City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 230 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Rising City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaRising City sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides