Wausa, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Wausa, 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 Wausa 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 Wausa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wausa — the short answer
Wausa, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 335 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 335 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 Wausa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wausa's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wausa
Each reading below is measured for Wausa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWausa runs about 177 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
MeasuredWausa 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 Wausa is in
Wausa sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wausa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Wausa
Every plant below cleared Wausa's own zone 5b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wausa?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Wausa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wausa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAUSA PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 800 ft
- BIG RED MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CENEX HARVEST COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHS BRANDON; WASAU MAINBrownfields · 1300 ft
- 29N 2W28BBCB1 CNBRLUSCR1 K-05Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- DAWSON TRANSPORT SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 29N 3W24DAA 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 30N 3W36DD 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 29N 1W28CDB 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- HOCHSTEIN FEEDYARDSCAFO · 7.7 mi
- MASON GROVE LAND AND CATTLECAFO · 7.9 mi
- BASF CORPORATION AT CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 8.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wausa'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 Wausa.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Wausa
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wausa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wausa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wausa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Wausa. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Wausa
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 Wausa average
Your land is one point inside Wausa
Everything above resolves to Wausa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 335 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 Wausa Average
Wausa Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wausa
- ●One soil character for all of Wausa
- ●Frost dates read at Wausa's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wausa's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wausa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wausa, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wausa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wausa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wausa average
How we know this about Wausa
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 Wausa’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 Wausa
When does frost risk typically end in Wausa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wausa typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Wausa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wausa typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wausa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wausa sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 1, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wausa?
The federal record around Wausa is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Wausa?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wausa's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wausa'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 Wausa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wausa's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 335 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wausa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wausa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 15 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wausa, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wausa's boundary and the 335 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wausa'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 Wausa's 335 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wausa's 335 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wausa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 335 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Wausa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaWausa sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides