Chouteau, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chouteau, 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 Chouteau 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 Chouteau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chouteau — the short answer
Chouteau, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Chouteau's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chouteau's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chouteau
Each reading below is measured for Chouteau itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChouteau runs about 230 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
MeasuredChouteau 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 Chouteau is in
Chouteau sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chouteau's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mayes County.
What Grows in Chouteau
Every plant below cleared Chouteau's own zone 7a and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chouteau?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Chouteau
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chouteau. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chouteau-Mazie Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Chouteau Office & Oper CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Phillips 66 Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- E-Z Mart #4410Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Mcgee's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Chouteau SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Junk & DisorderlyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Brewer Construction Company Of Eastern Ok IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Csc 111Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FRAILEY'S SALVAGE - CHOUTEAUSuperfund · 1.0 mi
- FRAILEY'S RECYCLING EAST - CHOUTEAUSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- Total #4422Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chouteau'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 Chouteau.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Chouteau
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chouteau
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chouteau
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chouteau, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chouteau — Superfund (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Chouteau
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 Chouteau average
Your land is one point inside Chouteau
Everything above resolves to Chouteau as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Chouteau Average
Chouteau Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chouteau
- ●One soil character for all of Chouteau
- ●Frost dates read at Chouteau's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chouteau's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chouteau
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chouteau, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chouteau averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chouteau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chouteau average
How we know this about Chouteau
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 Chouteau’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 Chouteau
When does frost risk typically end in Chouteau?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chouteau typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Chouteau?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chouteau typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chouteau?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chouteau sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 27, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chouteau?
The federal record around Chouteau is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Chouteau?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chouteau's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chouteau'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 Chouteau’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chouteau's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,151 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chouteau's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chouteau's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 10 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chouteau, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chouteau's boundary and the 2,151 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chouteau's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chouteau's 2,151 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mayes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mayes 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 Mayes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chouteau's 2,151 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chouteau you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,151 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 Chouteau-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaChouteau sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides