Purcell, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Purcell, 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 Purcell 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 Purcell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Purcell — the short answer
Purcell, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Purcell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Purcell's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Purcell
Each reading below is measured for Purcell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPurcell 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
MeasuredPurcell 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 Purcell is in
Purcell sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Purcell's own centroid rather than borrowed from McClain County.
What Grows in Purcell
Every plant below cleared Purcell'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 Purcell?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Purcell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Purcell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Purcell School Bus CompoundUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- D & S PetroUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #606Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- PURCELL MUNICIPAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Purcell ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Purcell Work CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Love's Country Store #28Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LOVE'S COUNTRY STORE #28Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- S&S Motors Frank StoneUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Mcklepper Real EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WALGREENS #13123Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Wadley's Ambulance ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Purcell'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 Purcell.
Total Sites
185
within ~10 miles of Purcell
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Purcell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Purcell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Purcell, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Purcell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Purcell
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 Purcell average
Your land is one point inside Purcell
Everything above resolves to Purcell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Purcell Average
Purcell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Purcell
- ●One soil character for all of Purcell
- ●Frost dates read at Purcell's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Purcell's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Purcell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Purcell, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Purcell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Purcell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Purcell average
How we know this about Purcell
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 Purcell’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 Purcell
When does frost risk typically end in Purcell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Purcell typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Purcell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Purcell typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Purcell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Purcell sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 3, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Purcell?
The federal record around Purcell shows 185 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Purcell?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Purcell's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Purcell'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 Purcell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Purcell's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,725 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Purcell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Purcell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 17 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Purcell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Purcell's boundary and the 9,725 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 Purcell's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Purcell's 9,725 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McClain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McClain 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 McClain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Purcell's 9,725 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Purcell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,725 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Purcell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaPurcell sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides