Oktaha, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oktaha, 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 Oktaha 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 Oktaha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oktaha — the short answer
Oktaha, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 175 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 175 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 Oktaha's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oktaha's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oktaha
Each reading below is measured for Oktaha itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOktaha runs about 246 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
MeasuredOktaha 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 Oktaha is in
Oktaha sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oktaha's own centroid rather than borrowed from Muskogee County.
What Grows in Oktaha
Every plant below cleared Oktaha's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oktaha?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Oktaha
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oktaha. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Oktaha Eazy MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Stromes Oil & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MUSKOGEE CO. RWD #1 (OKTAHA)PFAS · 1.5 mi
- Northside TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Barbara HulenUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- OKLAHOMA WESTERN LINESBrownfields · 7.0 mi
- Abandoned UstUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- L. J. DobsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- Checotah StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Hopkins FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Honey-Springer Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- UNITED STATES SMELTING CO.Superfund · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oktaha'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 Oktaha.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Oktaha
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oktaha
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oktaha
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oktaha, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oktaha — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Oktaha
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 Oktaha average
Your land is one point inside Oktaha
Everything above resolves to Oktaha as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 175 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 Oktaha Average
Oktaha Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Oktaha
- ●One soil character for all of Oktaha
- ●Frost dates read at Oktaha's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oktaha's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oktaha
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oktaha, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oktaha averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oktaha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oktaha average
How we know this about Oktaha
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 Oktaha’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 Oktaha
When does frost risk typically end in Oktaha?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oktaha 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 Oktaha?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oktaha typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oktaha?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oktaha sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 4, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oktaha?
The federal record around Oktaha is a meaningful one — 48 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Oktaha?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oktaha's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oktaha'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 Oktaha’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oktaha's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 175 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oktaha's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oktaha's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 18 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oktaha, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oktaha's boundary and the 175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oktaha's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oktaha's 175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Muskogee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Muskogee 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 Muskogee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oktaha's 175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oktaha you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 175 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Oktaha-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaOktaha sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides