Pawhuska, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pawhuska, 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 Pawhuska 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 Pawhuska — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pawhuska — the short answer
Pawhuska, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 7a is Pawhuska's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pawhuska's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pawhuska
Each reading below is measured for Pawhuska itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPawhuska runs about 231 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
MeasuredPawhuska sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Pawhuska is in
Pawhuska sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pawhuska's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osage County.
What Grows in Pawhuska
Every plant below cleared Pawhuska's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pawhuska?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Pawhuska
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pawhuska. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brazee's Tire ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- John W AtterberryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PAWHUSKA HS ERSuperfund · 1400 ft
- Oklahoma National Guard ArmoryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 7400Brownfields · 2100 ft
- Texaco Master StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Ez Mart #626Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Osage Agency CampusUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Henkels Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Fred A DrummondUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Pawhuska Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Southwestern Bell Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pawhuska'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 Pawhuska.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Pawhuska
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pawhuska
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pawhuska
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pawhuska, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Pawhuska. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pawhuska
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 Pawhuska average
Your land is one point inside Pawhuska
Everything above resolves to Pawhuska as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Pawhuska Average
Pawhuska Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pawhuska
- ●One soil character for all of Pawhuska
- ●Frost dates read at Pawhuska's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pawhuska's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pawhuska
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pawhuska, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pawhuska averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pawhuska — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pawhuska average
How we know this about Pawhuska
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 Pawhuska’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 Pawhuska
When does frost risk typically end in Pawhuska?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pawhuska typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Pawhuska?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pawhuska typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pawhuska?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pawhuska sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 26, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pawhuska?
The federal record around Pawhuska is a meaningful one — 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pawhuska?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pawhuska's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pawhuska'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 Pawhuska’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pawhuska's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,364 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pawhuska's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pawhuska's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 9 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pawhuska, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pawhuska's boundary and the 2,364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pawhuska's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pawhuska's 2,364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osage 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 Osage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pawhuska's 2,364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pawhuska you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,364 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 Pawhuska-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaPawhuska sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.