Hochatown, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hochatown, 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 Hochatown 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 Hochatown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hochatown — the short answer
Hochatown, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 8a is Hochatown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hochatown's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hochatown
Each reading below is measured for Hochatown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHochatown runs about 245 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
MeasuredHochatown sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Hochatown is in
Hochatown sits in the Ouachita Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hochatown's own centroid rather than borrowed from McCurtain County.
What Grows in Hochatown
Every plant below cleared Hochatown's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hochatown?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Hochatown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hochatown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Big Frank'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- E-Z Mart #4463Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lake Side Gro.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- US ARMY COE BROKEN BOW PROJECT OFFICEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Lake Pine Retreat (J. Reinhart)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BROKEN BOW PWAPFAS · 2.8 mi
- Weyerhaeuser CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- WeyerhaeuserUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Mountaineer StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- D-W Bait #005Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Broken Bow LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- B B Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hochatown'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 Hochatown.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Hochatown
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hochatown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hochatown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hochatown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hochatown — Underground Storage Tanks (41 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hochatown
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 Hochatown average
Your land is one point inside Hochatown
Everything above resolves to Hochatown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 town 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 Hochatown Average
Hochatown Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hochatown
- ●One soil character for all of Hochatown
- ●Frost dates read at Hochatown's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hochatown's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hochatown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hochatown, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hochatown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hochatown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hochatown average
How we know this about Hochatown
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hochatown’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Hochatown
When does frost risk typically end in Hochatown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hochatown typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Hochatown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hochatown typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hochatown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hochatown sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 3, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hochatown?
The federal record around Hochatown is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hochatown?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hochatown's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hochatown'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 Hochatown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hochatown's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,980 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hochatown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hochatown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 17 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hochatown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hochatown's boundary and the 6,980 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hochatown's own centroid, the Ouachita MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hochatown's 6,980 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCurtain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCurtain 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 McCurtain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hochatown's 6,980 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hochatown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,980 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Hochatown-wide figureread your own land →