Ellis County, in Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ellis County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ellis County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Ellis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ellis County — the short answer
Ellis County, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 788K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 788K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Ellis County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellis County's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Ellis County
Across a year, Ellis County accumulates about 4,186 growing degree days above 50°F, about 534 fewer than the middle Oklahoma county — ahead of 3 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,426 hours below 45°F, 507 more than the Oklahoma middle of 1,919. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Ellis County
Across Ellis County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Nobscot, Likes, and Berda are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.6–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
28%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ellis County
The USDA soil survey maps 77% of Ellis County as well drained — but another 23% drains differently: 15% somewhat excessively drained, 5% excessively drained.
Nobscot is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Likes (6%) and Berda (5%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Ellis County
Each reading below is measured for Ellis County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Ellis County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Ellis County runs about pH 6.6–7.9, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredEllis County runs about 213 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
MeasuredEllis County 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 Ellis County is in
Ellis County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southwestern Tablelands (59%) and Central Great Plains (41%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Ellis County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ellis County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 213-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ellis County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What gets applied to farmland in Ellis County
USGS estimates 18,856 lb of 2,4-d on Ellis County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (14,624 lb) and Atrazine (5,735 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Ellis County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ellis County — 137 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Ellis County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Ellis County
Closest first, across Ellis County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dix RoperUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Kenneth DavisUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Bayless FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 20N-23W-30 BB 1 COS-1225Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- Gage-Shattuck Airport AuthorityUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Gage Booster StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Gage, Ok Fss 1 Mi W, 1.5 Mi SUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Ellis County BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- 21N-23W-34 BBA 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- Ez StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- 19N-24W-09 BDD 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- Arnett Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellis County'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 Ellis County.
Total Sites
137
across Ellis County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Ellis County
Severity Distribution
across Ellis County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellis County, two things run higher than the national average across Ellis County — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (82 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Ellis County
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 Ellis County average
Your land is one point inside Ellis County
Everything above resolves to Ellis County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 788K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Ellis County Average
Ellis County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ellis County
- ●One soil character for all of Ellis County
- ●Frost dates read at Ellis County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellis County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ellis County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellis County, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellis County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellis County average
How we know this about Ellis County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Ellis County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ellis County
When does frost risk typically end in Ellis County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellis County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Ellis County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellis County sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 18, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellis County?
The federal record around Ellis County is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Ellis County's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellis County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Oklahoma's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Ellis County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Ellis County's own scale — its own ~213-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 137 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellis County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellis County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ellis CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 137 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ellis County's boundary and the 788,144 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Ellis County spans, Southwestern Tablelands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ellis County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Ellis County — the ~213 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellis County's 788,144 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 137 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Ellis Countyread your own land →