Caney, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Caney, 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 Caney 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 Caney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Caney — the short answer
Caney, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 484 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 8a is Caney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caney's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Caney
Each reading below is measured for Caney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCaney runs about 243 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
MeasuredCaney sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Caney is in
Caney sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Caney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atoka County.
What Grows in Caney
Every plant below cleared Caney's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Caney?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Caney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Caney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Caney Day & NightUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Caney Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- J & K GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Voca StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 04S 10EI sec. 27Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- ATOKA TRAILER & MFG. LLCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- Tushka SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- Tushka Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- 03S-09E-13 D 1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- Well Owner Name: MaureenNitrate · 7.4 mi
- C And H One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- Caddo Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caney'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 Caney.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Caney
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Caney
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 Caney average
Your land is one point inside Caney
Everything above resolves to Caney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 484 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 Caney Average
Caney Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Caney
- ●One soil character for all of Caney
- ●Frost dates read at Caney's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caney's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Caney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caney, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caney average
How we know this about Caney
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 Caney’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 Caney
When does frost risk typically end in Caney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caney typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Caney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Caney typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Caney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caney sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 31, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Caney?
The federal record around Caney is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Caney?
From about Oct 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 Nov 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Caney's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caney'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 Caney’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Caney's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 484 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Caney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 14 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Caney, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Caney's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Caney's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Caney's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atoka 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 Atoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Caney's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Caney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Caney-wide figureread your own land →