Wilber, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wilber, 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 Wilber 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 Wilber — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wilber — the short answer
Wilber, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 567 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 567 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 Wilber's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilber's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilber
Each reading below is measured for Wilber itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilber runs about 198 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
MeasuredWilber 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 Wilber is in
Wilber sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wilber's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saline County.
What Grows in Wilber
Every plant below cleared Wilber's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilber?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Wilber
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilber. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHOP QWIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WILBER-CLATONIA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2718Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - WILBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 6N 4E34CAC 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 6N 3E14DCC 1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- MILLER LIVESTOCK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- VETS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- 5N 4E14DDC 1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- IRWIN INDUSTRIAL TOOL COBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- IRWIN INDUSTRIAL TOOL COToxics Release Inventory · 6.5 mi
- STEHLIK 48Toxics Release Inventory · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilber'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 Wilber.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Wilber
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilber
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilber
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilber, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilber — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wilber
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 Wilber average
Your land is one point inside Wilber
Everything above resolves to Wilber as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 567 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 Wilber Average
Wilber Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wilber
- ●One soil character for all of Wilber
- ●Frost dates read at Wilber's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilber's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilber
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilber, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilber averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilber — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilber average
How we know this about Wilber
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 Wilber’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 Wilber
When does frost risk typically end in Wilber?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilber typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Wilber?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilber typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilber?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilber sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 9, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilber?
The federal record around Wilber shows 44 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wilber?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilber's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilber'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 Wilber’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wilber's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 567 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilber's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilber's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 23 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilber, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilber's boundary and the 567 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilber's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wilber's 567 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilber's 567 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilber you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 567 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 Wilber-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaWilber sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.