Le Flore County, in Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Le Flore County lies within the Southeastern Oklahoma / Ouachita Mountains (Kiamichi Country) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Le Flore County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Le Flore 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 Le Flore County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Le Flore County — the short answer
Le Flore County, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 1.0M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.0M 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 7b is Le Flore County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Le Flore County's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Le Flore County
Across a year, Le Flore County accumulates about 4,777 growing degree days above 50°F, about 57 more than the middle Oklahoma county — ahead of 42 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 1,776 hours below 45°F, 143 fewer 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 Le Flore County
Across Le Flore County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Carnasaw, Bengal, and Neff are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a stony loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
22%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Le Flore County
The USDA soil survey maps 70% of Le Flore County as well drained — but another 29% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat poorly drained.
Carnasaw is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Bengal (12%) and Neff (8%).
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 Le Flore County
Each reading below is measured for Le Flore 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 Le Flore County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Le Flore County runs about pH 5.3–5.8, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLe Flore County runs about 231 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
MeasuredLe Flore County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Le Flore County is in
Le Flore County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Arkansas Valley (54%) and Ouachita Mountains (47%). 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 Le Flore County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Le Flore County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 231-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 Le Flore County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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.
Documented around Le Flore County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Le Flore County
USGS estimates 14,167 lb of 2,4-d on Le Flore County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,376 lb) and Atrazine (5,048 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 Le Flore County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Le Flore County — 242 documented sites across 6 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 Le Flore 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 Le Flore County
Closest first, across Le Flore County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wister Project OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Fisherman's Net LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Reiehert StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Lake Wister State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Johns SupermktUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Kiamichi Petroleum CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Ron GroverUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Morgan ComansUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Heavener Kerr-McgeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Howe Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Tote-A-PokeUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Green Country SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Le Flore 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 Le Flore County.
Total Sites
242
across Le Flore County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Le Flore County
Severity Distribution
across Le Flore County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Le Flore County, two things run higher than the national average across Le Flore County — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (206 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Le Flore 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 Le Flore County average
Your land is one point inside Le Flore County
Everything above resolves to Le Flore County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.0M 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 Le Flore County Average
Le Flore County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Le Flore County
- ●One soil character for all of Le Flore County
- ●Frost dates read at Le Flore County's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Le Flore County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Le Flore County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Le Flore County, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Le Flore County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Le Flore County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Le Flore County average
How we know this about Le Flore 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 Le Flore County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Le Flore County
When does frost risk typically end in Le Flore County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Le Flore County typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Le Flore County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Le Flore County sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 25, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Le Flore County?
The federal record around Le Flore County is a meaningful one — 242 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Le Flore County's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Le Flore 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 Le Flore County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Le Flore County's own scale — its own ~231-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 242 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Le Flore County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Le Flore County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Le Flore CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 242 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Le Flore County's boundary and the 1,017,233 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Le Flore County spans, Arkansas Valley the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Le Flore County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Le Flore 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 Le Flore County — the ~231 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 Le Flore County's 1,017,233 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 242 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 Le Flore Countyread your own land →