Keyes, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Keyes, 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 Keyes 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 Keyes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Keyes — the short answer
Keyes, Oklahoma: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 231 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 231 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 6b is Keyes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keyes's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keyes
Each reading below is measured for Keyes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeyes runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKeyes sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Keyes is in
Keyes sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Keyes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cimarron County.
What Grows in Keyes
Every plant below cleared Keyes's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keyes?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Keyes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keyes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fred Kinzer - Kinzer Oil Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Gtsw - Keyes Central OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Cimarron County Dist #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Burrow Petroleum CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Keyes BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 04N 07E 05DBAA01 CAL-1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 04N-07E-16 B 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 04N-08E-27 C 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 04N-07E-08 D 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- Keyes Helium PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 04N-07E-05 BBC 1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- T05N-R08E-28 ADD 1 COS-1073Nitrate · 5.6 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keyes'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 Keyes.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keyes
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Keyes
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 Keyes average
Your land is one point inside Keyes
Everything above resolves to Keyes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 231 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 Keyes Average
Keyes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Keyes
- ●One soil character for all of Keyes
- ●Frost dates read at Keyes's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keyes's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keyes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keyes, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keyes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keyes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keyes average
How we know this about Keyes
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 Keyes’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 Keyes
When does frost risk typically end in Keyes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keyes typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Keyes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keyes typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keyes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keyes sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keyes?
The federal record around Keyes is light — 24 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Keyes?
From about Sep 27 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 Oct 27 (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 Oct 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keyes's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keyes'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 Keyes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keyes's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 231 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keyes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keyes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keyes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keyes's boundary and the 231 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keyes's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keyes's 231 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cimarron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cimarron 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 Cimarron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keyes's 231 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keyes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 231 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Keyes-wide figureread your own land →