Ames, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ames, 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 Ames 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 Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ames — the short answer
Ames, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 178 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 178 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 7a is Ames's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ames's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ames
Each reading below is measured for Ames itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmes runs about 229 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAmes sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Ames is in
Ames sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ames's own centroid rather than borrowed from Major County.
What Grows in Ames
Every plant below cleared Ames's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ames?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Ames
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ames. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ames Texaco Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Ames Korner Store LlcUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Farmers Elevator Co-StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 20N-09W-06 BA 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 20N-09W-06 DCB 1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 20N-09W-07 BAD 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 21N-09W-29 BDD 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 20N-09W-09 BAA 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 21N-09W-28 DC 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 21N-09W-33 AA 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 21N-09W-29 BD 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 20N-10W-12 AA 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ames'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 Ames.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Ames
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ames
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ames
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ames, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 208 sites within ~10 miles of Ames. 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 Ames
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 Ames average
Your land is one point inside Ames
Everything above resolves to Ames as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 178 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 Ames Average
Ames Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ames
- ●One soil character for all of Ames
- ●Frost dates read at Ames's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ames's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ames
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ames, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ames averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ames average
How we know this about Ames
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 Ames’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 Ames
When does frost risk typically end in Ames?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Ames?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ames?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ames sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 28, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ames?
The federal record around Ames is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (208), 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 Ames?
From about Oct 12 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 Nov 11 (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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ames's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ames'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 Ames’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ames's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 178 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ames's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ames's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 11 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ames, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ames's boundary and the 178 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ames's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ames's 178 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Major County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Major County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Major County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ames's 178 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ames you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 178 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 Ames-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaAmes sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.