Roca, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Roca, 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 Roca 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 Roca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roca — the short answer
Roca, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 89 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 89 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 Roca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roca's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roca
Each reading below is measured for Roca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoca runs about 198 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
MeasuredRoca 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 Roca is in
Roca sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Roca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Roca
Every plant below cleared Roca's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roca?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Roca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED SUPPLIERS INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- 8N 7E17CC 1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- SCHWARCK QUARRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- U STOP #17Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 9N 6E36DD 1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY - LINCOLN TERMINALBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 COMPANY LINCOLN PRODUCTS TERMINALBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- SHOEMAKERs TRUCK STOP SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- MAGELLAN MIDSTREAM PARTNERS LP - LINCOLN STATIONBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- MAJOR OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BEDIENT PIPE ORGAN COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- BAXTER TOYOTA-SCION OF LINCOLNUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roca'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 Roca.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Roca
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roca, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Roca. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Roca
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 Roca average
Your land is one point inside Roca
Everything above resolves to Roca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 89 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 Roca Average
Roca Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Roca
- ●One soil character for all of Roca
- ●Frost dates read at Roca's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roca's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roca, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roca average
How we know this about Roca
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 Roca’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 Roca
When does frost risk typically end in Roca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roca typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Roca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roca typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roca sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 9, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roca?
The federal record around Roca is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (93), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Roca?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roca's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roca'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 Roca’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Roca's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 89 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 23 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roca, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roca's boundary and the 89 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roca'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 Roca's 89 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roca's 89 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 89 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Roca-wide figureread your own land →