Quapaw, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Quapaw, 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 Quapaw 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 Quapaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Quapaw — the short answer
Quapaw, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 529 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 529 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 Quapaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quapaw's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quapaw
Each reading below is measured for Quapaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredQuapaw runs about 228 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
MeasuredQuapaw 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 Quapaw is in
Quapaw sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Quapaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ottawa County.
What Grows in Quapaw
Every plant below cleared Quapaw's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quapaw?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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. 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 Quapaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quapaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 29N-23E-35 BDD 1Nitrate · 400 ft
- Kandy KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Sunnyside Farm, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BuckeyeMining · 0.6 mi
- Quapaw Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ottawa County Dist # 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Crawford-HolderMining · 0.8 mi
- Alice Greenback MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Betsy Greenback MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Silver Streak MineMining · 1.2 mi
- HobartMining · 1.3 mi
- DorisMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quapaw'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 Quapaw.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Quapaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quapaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quapaw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Quapaw — Mining (144 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Quapaw
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 Quapaw average
Your land is one point inside Quapaw
Everything above resolves to Quapaw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 529 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 Quapaw Average
Quapaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Quapaw
- ●One soil character for all of Quapaw
- ●Frost dates read at Quapaw's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quapaw's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quapaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quapaw, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quapaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quapaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quapaw average
How we know this about Quapaw
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 Quapaw’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 Quapaw
When does frost risk typically end in Quapaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quapaw typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Quapaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quapaw 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 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quapaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quapaw sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quapaw?
The federal record around Quapaw runs heavier than most — 423 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (144), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Quapaw?
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 Quapaw's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quapaw'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 Quapaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Quapaw's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 529 acres it covers and 423 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quapaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Quapaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 423 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quapaw, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quapaw's boundary and the 529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Quapaw's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quapaw's 529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ottawa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ottawa 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 Ottawa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Quapaw's 529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quapaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Quapaw-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaQuapaw sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides