Wisner, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wisner, 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 Wisner 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 Wisner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wisner — the short answer
Wisner, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 787 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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
- City area
- 787 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 5a is Wisner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wisner's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wisner
Each reading below is measured for Wisner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWisner 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
MeasuredWisner sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Wisner is in
Wisner sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wisner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cuming County.
What Grows in Wisner
Every plant below cleared Wisner's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wisner?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Wisner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wisner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CITY OF WISNER POWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FELLER FEEDLOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TIMs SINCLAIR LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ANIMAL HEALTH INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 1800 ft
- OTT LIVESTOCK, LLCCAFO · 1800 ft
- WISNER WEST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WISNER-PILGER SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- L.D.I. - EAST PLACECAFO · 0.5 mi
- KVOLS FEEDLOTS INCCAFO · 0.5 mi
- GERHOLD CONCRETE COToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- URWILER FEEDERS, INC.CAFO · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wisner'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 Wisner.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Wisner
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wisner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wisner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wisner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wisner — CAFO (49 sites) and Nitrate (24 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 Wisner
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 Wisner average
Your land is one point inside Wisner
Everything above resolves to Wisner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 787 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 Wisner Average
Wisner Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wisner
- ●One soil character for all of Wisner
- ●Frost dates read at Wisner's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wisner's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wisner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wisner, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wisner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wisner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wisner average
How we know this about Wisner
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 Wisner’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 Wisner
When does frost risk typically end in Wisner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wisner 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 Wisner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wisner 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 Wisner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wisner 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 Wisner?
The federal record around Wisner shows 88 documented sites, mostly CAFO entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wisner?
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 Wisner's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wisner'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 Wisner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wisner's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 787 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wisner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wisner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 16 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wisner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wisner's boundary and the 787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wisner'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 Wisner's 787 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cuming County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cuming 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 Cuming County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wisner's 787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wisner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 787 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wisner-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaWisner sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides