Pottawatomie County, in Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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
Pottawatomie County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pottawatomie County — the short answer
Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 504K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 504K 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 Pottawatomie County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pottawatomie County's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Pottawatomie County
Across a year, Pottawatomie County accumulates about 4,780 growing degree days above 50°F, about 60 more than the middle Oklahoma county — ahead of 43 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 1,804 hours below 45°F, 115 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 Pottawatomie County
Across Pottawatomie County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Stephenville, Grainola, and Littleaxe are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
43%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pottawatomie County
The USDA soil survey maps 85% of Pottawatomie County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 5% moderately well drained, 4% somewhat excessively drained.
Stephenville is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Grainola (13%) and Littleaxe (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 Pottawatomie County
Each reading below is measured for Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Pottawatomie County runs about pH 5.8–7.0, 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
MeasuredPottawatomie County runs about 243 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
MeasuredPottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County is in
Pottawatomie County sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Pottawatomie County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pottawatomie County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 243-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 Pottawatomie County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pottawatomie County
- monarch butterfly37 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Pottawatomie County
USGS estimates 35,814 lb of 2,4-d on Pottawatomie County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Triclopyr (15,490 lb) and Glyphosate (11,336 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 Pottawatomie County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pottawatomie County — 469 documented sites across 7 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 Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County
Closest first, across Pottawatomie County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT & TBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 08N-03E-03 DAA 1 NOTS 5Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- TECUMSEH UTILITY AUTHORITYPFAS · 1.9 mi
- 09N-03E-21 DAD 1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 09N-03E-32 AAD 1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 09N-03E-13 CCA 1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- Central Okla Juvenile CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Ruby McbrideUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- L W KarrUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Bell GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- William A. PerryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MORRIS CLEANERSBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County.
Total Sites
469
across Pottawatomie County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Pottawatomie County
Severity Distribution
across Pottawatomie County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pottawatomie County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 140 sites across Pottawatomie County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County average
Your land is one point inside Pottawatomie County
Everything above resolves to Pottawatomie County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 504K 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 Pottawatomie County Average
Pottawatomie County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pottawatomie County
- ●One soil character for all of Pottawatomie County
- ●Frost dates read at Pottawatomie County's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pottawatomie County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pottawatomie County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pottawatomie County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pottawatomie County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pottawatomie County average
How we know this about Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pottawatomie County
When does frost risk typically end in Pottawatomie County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pottawatomie County typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Pottawatomie County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pottawatomie County sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 30, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pottawatomie County?
The federal record around Pottawatomie County is a meaningful one — 469 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (251), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.2 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 Pottawatomie County's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Pottawatomie County's own scale — its own ~243-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 469 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pottawatomie County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pottawatomie County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pottawatomie CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 469 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pottawatomie County's boundary and the 504,202 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pottawatomie County sitting wholly inside the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Pottawatomie County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pottawatomie 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 Pottawatomie County — the ~243 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 Pottawatomie County's 504,202 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 469 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 Pottawatomie Countyread your own land →