Payne 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
Payne County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Payne 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 Payne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Payne County — the short answer
Payne County, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 438K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 438K 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 Payne County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Payne County's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Payne County
Across a year, Payne County accumulates about 4,607 growing degree days above 50°F, about 113 fewer than the middle Oklahoma county — ahead of 24 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 2,033 hours below 45°F, 114 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 Payne County
Across Payne County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Grainola, Pulaski, and Stephenville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
44%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Payne County
The USDA soil survey maps 83% of Payne County as well drained — but another 14% drains differently: 9% moderately well drained, 4% somewhat excessively drained.
Grainola is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Pulaski (8%) and Stephenville (7%).
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 Payne County
Each reading below is measured for Payne 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 Payne County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Payne County runs about pH 6.3–7.0, 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
MeasuredPayne County 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
MeasuredPayne 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 Payne County is in
Payne County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (90%) and Cross Timbers (11%). 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 Payne County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Payne County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 230-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 Payne 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 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Payne County
- monarch butterfly43 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Payne County
USGS estimates 34,259 lb of 2,4-d on Payne County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Triclopyr (15,657 lb) and Glyphosate (8,780 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 Payne County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Payne County — 343 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. 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 Payne 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 Payne County
Closest first, across Payne County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Disel Apco StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Teepee Smoke ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Country ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Payne County Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Payne County Sherrif's Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Kum & Go #878Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Oakes Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Cowboy ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Estate Of Ra PattonUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- CrestviewUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Beverage Products Corp.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Stillwater East-5Mining · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Payne 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 Payne County.
Severity Distribution
across Payne County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Payne County, two things run higher than the national average across Payne County — Superfund (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (233 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Payne 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 Payne County average
Your land is one point inside Payne County
Everything above resolves to Payne County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 438K 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 Payne County Average
Payne County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Payne County
- ●One soil character for all of Payne County
- ●Frost dates read at Payne County's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Payne County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Payne County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Payne County, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Payne County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Payne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Payne County average
How we know this about Payne 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 Payne County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Payne County
When does frost risk typically end in Payne County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Payne County 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.
How long is the growing season in Payne County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Payne County 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 Payne County?
The federal record around Payne County is a meaningful one — 343 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (233), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Payne County's scale — its 7a band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Payne 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 Payne County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Payne County's own scale — its own ~230-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 343 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Payne County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Payne County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Payne CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 343 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Payne County's boundary and the 438,336 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 2 ecoregions Payne County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Payne County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Payne 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 Payne County — the ~230 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 Payne County's 438,336 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 343 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 Payne Countyread your own land →