Scotia, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scotia, 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 Scotia 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 Scotia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scotia — the short answer
Scotia, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 222 acres of town.
- 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 222 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 Scotia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotia's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scotia
Each reading below is measured for Scotia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScotia runs about 179 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
MeasuredScotia 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 Scotia is in
Scotia sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Scotia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greeley County.
What Grows in Scotia
Every plant below cleared Scotia's own zone 5b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scotia?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 16 — 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 Scotia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scotia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TROTTERS WHOA & GO EXPRESS IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CJs PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 17N 12W 4DD 1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 18N 13W36AD 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 17N 12W26BBAA1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 18N 12W19CA 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- RICHARD KRCILEK FARMBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- TROTTERs WHOA & GO #9Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 18N 12W19BA 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 17N 11W31BA 1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 17N 13W 4ABAA1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 18N 13W33BC 1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotia'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 Scotia.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Scotia
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scotia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scotia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scotia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scotia — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (26 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 Scotia
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 Scotia average
Your land is one point inside Scotia
Everything above resolves to Scotia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 222 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 Scotia Average
Scotia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Scotia
- ●One soil character for all of Scotia
- ●Frost dates read at Scotia's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotia's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scotia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotia, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotia average
How we know this about Scotia
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 Scotia’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 Scotia
When does frost risk typically end in Scotia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotia 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 Scotia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scotia typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scotia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotia sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 2, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotia?
The federal record around Scotia is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scotia?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scotia's scale — its 5b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotia'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 Scotia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scotia's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 222 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scotia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 16 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scotia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scotia's boundary and the 222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scotia's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scotia's 222 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greeley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greeley 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 Greeley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scotia's 222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scotia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 222 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scotia-wide figureread your own land →
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