Ratliff City, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ratliff City, 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 Ratliff City 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 Ratliff City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ratliff City — the short answer
Ratliff City, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 718 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- 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
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 718 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 8a is Ratliff City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ratliff City's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ratliff City
Each reading below is measured for Ratliff City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRatliff City runs about 248 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
MeasuredRatliff City sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Ratliff City is in
Ratliff City sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ratliff City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carter County.
What Grows in Ratliff City
Every plant below cleared Ratliff City's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ratliff City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (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. 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 Ratliff City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ratliff City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bottom DollarUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Rocket OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Dresser Oil Tools FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Loftis Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Sutherland W.S.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Ronald L WeldonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Jason's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Jd's DxUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Marty's Karry-Out-KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Marty's Karry Out KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- B&B Tool Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Ratliff City Batch PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ratliff City'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 Ratliff City.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Ratliff City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ratliff City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ratliff City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ratliff City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 59 sites within ~10 miles of Ratliff City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ratliff City
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 Ratliff City average
Your land is one point inside Ratliff City
Everything above resolves to Ratliff City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 718 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 Ratliff City Average
Ratliff City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ratliff City
- ●One soil character for all of Ratliff City
- ●Frost dates read at Ratliff City's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ratliff City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ratliff City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ratliff City, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ratliff City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ratliff City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ratliff City average
How we know this about Ratliff City
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 Ratliff City’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 Ratliff City
When does frost risk typically end in Ratliff City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ratliff City typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Ratliff City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ratliff City 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 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ratliff City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ratliff City sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 3, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ratliff City?
The federal record around Ratliff City shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ratliff City?
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 Ratliff City's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ratliff City'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 Ratliff City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ratliff City's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 718 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ratliff City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ratliff City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 17 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ratliff City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ratliff City's boundary and the 718 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ratliff City's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ratliff City's 718 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carter 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 Carter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ratliff City's 718 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ratliff City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 718 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ratliff City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaRatliff City sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.