Pump Back, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pump Back, 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 Pump Back 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 Pump Back — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pump Back — the short answer
Pump Back, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- 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
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Pump Back's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pump Back's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pump Back
Each reading below is measured for Pump Back itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPump Back 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
MeasuredPump Back 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 Pump Back is in
Pump Back sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pump Back's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mayes County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pump Back
Every plant below cleared Pump Back'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 Pump Back?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (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 Pump Back
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pump Back. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRAND RIVER DAM AUTHORITY SALINA PUMPED STORAGE PROJECTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- GRAND RIVER DAM AUTHORITY ROBERT S KERR DAMBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Mayes County District 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Stephenson And Stephenson-LlcUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Joe's 101Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Bales Sinclair Serv StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Conley's PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Pritchett's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Lakeside Jiffy StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Woodland Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- OKLA ORDNANCE WORKS AUTHORITYPFAS · 3.9 mi
- EXPRESS METAL FABRICATORS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pump Back'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 Pump Back.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Pump Back
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pump Back
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pump Back
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pump Back, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Pump Back. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pump Back
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 Pump Back average
Your land is one point inside Pump Back
Everything above resolves to Pump Back as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Pump Back Average
Pump Back Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pump Back
- ●One soil character for all of Pump Back
- ●Frost dates read at Pump Back's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pump Back's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pump Back
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pump Back, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pump Back averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pump Back — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pump Back average
How we know this about Pump Back
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 Pump Back’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 Pump Back
When does frost risk typically end in Pump Back?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pump Back typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Pump Back?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pump Back 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 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pump Back?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pump Back sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pump Back?
The federal record around Pump Back is a meaningful one — 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Pump Back?
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 Pump Back's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pump Back'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 Pump Back’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pump Back's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,325 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pump Back's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pump Back's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pump Back, the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pump Back's boundary and the 1,325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pump Back sits in the Ozark Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pump Back's 1,325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mayes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mayes 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 Mayes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pump Back's 1,325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pump Back you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Pump Back-wide figureread your own land →
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