Mayes County, in Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Mayes County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Mayes 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 Mayes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mayes County — the short answer
Mayes County, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 419K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 419K 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 Mayes County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mayes County's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Mayes County
Across a year, Mayes County accumulates about 4,396 growing degree days above 50°F, about 324 fewer than the middle Oklahoma county — ahead of 10 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 2,107 hours below 45°F, 188 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 Mayes County
Across Mayes County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Clarksville, Dennis, and Parsons are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.1, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
49%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Mayes County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Mayes County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 65% drains differently: 27% well drained, 24% somewhat excessively drained.
Clarksville is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Dennis (12%) and Parsons (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 Mayes County
Each reading below is measured for Mayes 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 Mayes County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Mayes County runs about pH 5.3–6.1, 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
MeasuredMayes County runs about 225 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
MeasuredMayes 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 Mayes County is in
Mayes County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Irregular Plains (56%) and Ozark Highlands (44%). 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 Mayes County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Mayes County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 225-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 Mayes County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Mayes County
- Japanese beetle13 documented records
- monarch butterfly42 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Mayes County
USGS estimates 13,034 lb of 2,4-d on Mayes County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (7,908 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,212 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 Mayes County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mayes County — 220 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites (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 Mayes 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 Mayes County
Closest first, across Mayes County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MESTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- XCALIBER INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- STANDARD MATERIALS GROUP, INC. PRYORToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- Prime Stop Food N' Fuel, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- AMAZON ENVIRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- LONE STAR IND INC DBA BUZZI UNICEM USA PRYOR CEMENT PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- LONE STAR IND INC DBA BUZZI UNICEM USA PRYOR CEMENT PLANTBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Lone Star Industries, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Well Owner Name: SteveNitrate · 2.5 mi
- Kaiser ChemicalsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CENTRAL CARBIDE LLC / CENTRAL CARBIDE LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- Mayes County District #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mayes 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 Mayes County.
Total Sites
220
across Mayes County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Mayes County
Severity Distribution
across Mayes County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mayes County, two things run higher than the national average across Mayes County — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (6 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mayes 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 Mayes County average
Your land is one point inside Mayes County
Everything above resolves to Mayes County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 419K 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 Mayes County Average
Mayes County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mayes County
- ●One soil character for all of Mayes County
- ●Frost dates read at Mayes County's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mayes County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Mayes County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mayes County, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mayes County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mayes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mayes County average
How we know this about Mayes 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 Mayes County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Mayes County
When does frost risk typically end in Mayes County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mayes County 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.
How long is the growing season in Mayes County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mayes County sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 24, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mayes County?
The federal record around Mayes County is a meaningful one — 220 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Mayes County's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mayes 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 Mayes County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Mayes County's own scale — its own ~225-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 220 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mayes County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mayes County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Mayes CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 220 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Mayes County's boundary and the 419,408 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Mayes County spans, Central Irregular Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Mayes County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Mayes 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 Mayes County — the ~225 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 Mayes County's 419,408 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 220 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 Mayes Countyread your own land →