Rulo, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rulo, 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 Rulo 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 Rulo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rulo — the short answer
Rulo, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 401 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 401 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 Rulo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rulo's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rulo
Each reading below is measured for Rulo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRulo runs about 201 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
MeasuredRulo 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 Rulo is in
Rulo sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rulo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richardson County.
What Grows in Rulo
Every plant below cleared Rulo's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rulo?
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 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Rulo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rulo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T61N R40W 33ADB1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- T61N R40W 35BCB1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 2N 17E34AA 2Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- T61N R39W 31BDD1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 01S 18E 03CCD 01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- BIG LAKE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- FERTILIZER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- T61N R39W 06CDD1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- T61N R39W 06ACC1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- T62N R40W 27BDD1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- J-SIX FARMS WHITE CLOUDCAFO · 7.3 mi
- 1N 16E24AC 1Nitrate · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rulo'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 Rulo.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Rulo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rulo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rulo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rulo, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Rulo. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Rulo
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 Rulo average
Your land is one point inside Rulo
Everything above resolves to Rulo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 401 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 Rulo Average
Rulo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rulo
- ●One soil character for all of Rulo
- ●Frost dates read at Rulo's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rulo's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rulo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rulo, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rulo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rulo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rulo average
How we know this about Rulo
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 Rulo’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 Rulo
When does frost risk typically end in Rulo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rulo 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 Rulo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rulo typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rulo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rulo sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 10, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rulo?
The federal record around Rulo shows 66 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Rulo?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rulo's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rulo'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 Rulo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rulo's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 401 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rulo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rulo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 24 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rulo, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rulo's boundary and the 401 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rulo'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 Rulo's 401 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richardson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richardson 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 Richardson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rulo's 401 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rulo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 401 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Rulo-wide figureread your own land →