Nowata 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.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Nowata County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Nowata 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 Nowata County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nowata County — the short answer
Nowata County, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 362K 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 362K 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 Nowata County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nowata County's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Nowata County
Across a year, Nowata County accumulates about 4,310 growing degree days above 50°F, about 410 fewer than the middle Oklahoma county — ahead of 7 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 2,260 hours below 45°F, 341 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 Nowata County
Across Nowata County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Dennis, Coweta, 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 5.8–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
45%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Nowata County
The USDA soil survey maps 39% of Nowata County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 57% drains differently: 36% well drained, 20% moderately well drained.
Dennis is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Coweta (12%) and Parsons (10%).
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 Nowata County
Each reading below is measured for Nowata 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 Nowata 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 Nowata County runs about pH 5.8–6.5, 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
MeasuredNowata County runs about 224 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
MeasuredNowata 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 Nowata County is in
Nowata County sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Nowata County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Nowata County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 224-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 Nowata County?
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 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 6 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Nowata County
USGS estimates 21,987 lb of 2,4-d on Nowata County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (10,278 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (4,129 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 Nowata County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Nowata County — 48 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Nowata 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 Nowata County
Closest first, across Nowata County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Runnin F IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Carl FranklinUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Farris Oil Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Lenapah SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Whistle StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- BSW NOWATAToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
- Love's Travel Stops #636Underground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Nowata County, District #2Underground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Franklin's Serv StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Casey's General Store #3527Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Bobs DxUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Chevy GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nowata 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 Nowata County.
Total Sites
48
across Nowata County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Nowata County
Severity Distribution
across Nowata County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nowata County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 38 sites across Nowata County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Nowata 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 Nowata County average
Your land is one point inside Nowata County
Everything above resolves to Nowata County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 362K 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 Nowata County Average
Nowata County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Nowata County
- ●One soil character for all of Nowata County
- ●Frost dates read at Nowata County's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nowata County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Nowata County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nowata County, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nowata County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nowata County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nowata County average
How we know this about Nowata 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 Nowata County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Nowata County
When does frost risk typically end in Nowata County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nowata 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 Nowata County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nowata County sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nowata County?
The federal record around Nowata County is a meaningful one — 48 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), 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 Nowata County's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nowata 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 Nowata County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Nowata County's own scale — its own ~224-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 48 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nowata County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nowata County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Nowata CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 48 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
- Nowata County's boundary and the 362,123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Nowata County sitting wholly inside the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Nowata 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 Nowata County — the ~224 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 Nowata County's 362,123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 48 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 Nowata Countyread your own land →