Scribner, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scribner, 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 Scribner 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 Scribner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Scribner — the short answer
Scribner, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 417 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
- 417 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 Scribner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scribner's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scribner
Each reading below is measured for Scribner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScribner 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
MeasuredScribner 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 Scribner is in
Scribner sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Scribner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dodge County.
What Grows in Scribner
Every plant below cleared Scribner'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 Scribner?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Scribner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scribner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMERS COOP MERCANTILE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SCRIBNER BP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SCRIBNER EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 20N 7E31BD 1Nitrate · 650 ft
- WHITE'S REPAIR SERVICEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SCRIBNER SNYDER HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- NEBRASKA BIODIESEL L.L.C.Toxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- EVELAND SUPPLY COToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- 19N 6E 1AC 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- MULLER FARMS, INC.CAFO · 2.2 mi
- 19N 7E18AA 1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 20N 7E21AACD1 CNBRLUSCR1 DO-26Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scribner'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 Scribner.
Total Sites
283
within ~10 miles of Scribner
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scribner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scribner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scribner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scribner — CAFO (19 sites) and Nitrate (246 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 Scribner
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 Scribner average
Your land is one point inside Scribner
Everything above resolves to Scribner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 417 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 Scribner Average
Scribner Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Scribner
- ●One soil character for all of Scribner
- ●Frost dates read at Scribner's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scribner's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scribner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scribner, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scribner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scribner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scribner average
How we know this about Scribner
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 Scribner’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 Scribner
When does frost risk typically end in Scribner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scribner 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 Scribner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scribner 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 Scribner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scribner 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 Scribner?
The federal record around Scribner is a meaningful one — 283 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (246), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scribner?
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 Scribner's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scribner'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 Scribner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scribner's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 417 acres it covers and 283 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scribner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scribner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 19 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 283 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scribner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scribner's boundary and the 417 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scribner'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 Scribner's 417 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dodge 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 Dodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scribner's 417 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scribner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 417 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 Scribner-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaScribner sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.