Cushing, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Even in Cushing, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cushing lot. 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 Cushing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cushing — the short answer
Cushing, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Cushing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cushing's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cushing
Each reading below is measured for Cushing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCushing runs about 238 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
MeasuredCushing 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 Cushing is in
Cushing sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cushing's own centroid rather than borrowed from Payne County.
What Grows in Cushing
Every plant below cleared Cushing's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cushing?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Cushing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cushing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AHS CUSHING HOSPITAL, LLC - DBA HILLCREST HOSPITAL CUSHINGBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Water Maintenance Bldg.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CONOCO PIPELINE CO /CUSHING STABrownfields · 1700 ft
- Det 1 Co B 1/179 InfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Tomanna TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Continental ConcreteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- REACTION ENVIRONMENTAL LLCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- INTERTEK USA INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- B & J Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Jack BrownleeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Bill's E-Z Out, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Super Stop #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cushing'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 Cushing.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cushing
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cushing
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cushing, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cushing — Superfund (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (92 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cushing
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 Cushing average
Your land is one point inside Cushing
Everything above resolves to Cushing as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Cushing Average
Cushing Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cushing
- ●One soil character for all of Cushing
- ●Frost dates read at Cushing's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cushing's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cushing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cushing, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cushing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cushing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cushing average
How we know this about Cushing
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cushing’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cushing
When does frost risk typically end in Cushing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cushing typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Cushing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cushing typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cushing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cushing sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 30, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cushing?
The federal record around Cushing is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cushing?
From about Oct 14 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cushing's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cushing's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cushing’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cushing's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,861 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cushing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cushing's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 13 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cushing, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cushing's boundary and the 4,861 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cushing's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cushing's 4,861 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Payne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Payne County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Payne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cushing's 4,861 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cushing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,861 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cushing-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaCushing sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.