Panola, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Panola, 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 Panola 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 Panola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Panola — the short answer
Panola, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 717 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 717 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 Panola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Panola's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Panola
Each reading below is measured for Panola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPanola runs about 236 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
MeasuredPanola 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 Panola is in
Panola sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Panola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Latimer County.
What Grows in Panola
Every plant below cleared Panola's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Panola?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Panola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Panola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Panola StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COASTAL CHEMICAL CO., LLC-WILBURTON FACITLIYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Choctaw Travel PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- WEATHERFORD ENTERRABrownfields · 4.2 mi
- Wilburton GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Jim Walden's SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- City Of WilburtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- ANCHOR DRILLING FLUIDSBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- Wooldridge Oil Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Jt WilliamsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Wagner Apco Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Amoco Production (Wilburton YarUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Panola'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 Panola.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Panola
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Panola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Panola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Panola, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Panola. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Panola
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 Panola average
Your land is one point inside Panola
Everything above resolves to Panola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 717 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 Panola Average
Panola Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Panola
- ●One soil character for all of Panola
- ●Frost dates read at Panola's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Panola's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Panola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Panola, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Panola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Panola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Panola average
How we know this about Panola
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 Panola’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 Panola
When does frost risk typically end in Panola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Panola typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Panola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Panola typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Panola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Panola sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 27, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Panola?
The federal record around Panola is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), 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 Panola?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Panola's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Panola'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 Panola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Panola's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 717 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Panola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Panola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 10 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Panola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Panola's boundary and the 717 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Panola's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Panola's 717 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Latimer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Latimer 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 Latimer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Panola's 717 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Panola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 717 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 Panola-wide figureread your own land →