Schuyler, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Schuyler, 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 Schuyler 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 Schuyler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Schuyler — the short answer
Schuyler, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 2K 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 Schuyler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schuyler's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Schuyler
Each reading below is measured for Schuyler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSchuyler 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
MeasuredSchuyler 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 Schuyler is in
Schuyler sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Schuyler's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Colfax County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Schuyler
Every plant below cleared Schuyler'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 Schuyler?
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 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. 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 Schuyler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Schuyler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2716Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- REINECKE MOTOR COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- POKORNY OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LOPEZ AUTO SALESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JOHN'S TIRE SALES & SERVICEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SCHUYLER COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCHUYLER CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PARKVIEW ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FUEL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BLACK HILLS ENERGYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CARGILL MEAT SOLUTIONSToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- 17N 3E 4DAC 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schuyler'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 Schuyler.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Schuyler
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Schuyler
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Schuyler
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schuyler, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Schuyler — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (60 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Schuyler
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 Schuyler average
Your land is one point inside Schuyler
Everything above resolves to Schuyler as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Schuyler Average
Schuyler Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Schuyler
- ●One soil character for all of Schuyler
- ●Frost dates read at Schuyler's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schuyler's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Schuyler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schuyler, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schuyler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schuyler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schuyler average
How we know this about Schuyler
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 Schuyler’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 Schuyler
When does frost risk typically end in Schuyler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schuyler 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 Schuyler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Schuyler 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 Schuyler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schuyler 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 Schuyler?
The federal record around Schuyler shows 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Schuyler?
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 Schuyler's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schuyler'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 Schuyler’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Schuyler's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,750 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schuyler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Schuyler's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 19 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Schuyler, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Schuyler's boundary and the 1,750 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Schuyler sits in the Central Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Schuyler's 1,750 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colfax 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 Colfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Schuyler's 1,750 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Schuyler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,750 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Schuyler-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaSchuyler sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.