Rock Island, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rock Island, 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 Rock Island 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 Rock Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rock Island — the short answer
Rock Island, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Rock Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rock Island's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rock Island
Each reading below is measured for Rock Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRock Island runs about 245 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
MeasuredRock Island 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 Rock Island is in
Rock Island sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rock Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Le Flore County.
What Grows in Rock Island
Every plant below cleared Rock Island's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rock Island?
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 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 14 — 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 Rock Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rock Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rick's Corner Mart, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Bhp Pc Hardin #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 06N32W20DCB1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- IBISON, GENEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Bo-Bo's Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 06N32W21CBD1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 06N32W21ACC1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- HUG & BISCUITSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- PHIL'S FOOD CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- HACKETT PUBLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- HACKETT C.D.O.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 06N32W21ADD1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rock Island'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 Rock Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rock Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rock Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rock Island, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rock Island — Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (87 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rock Island
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 Rock Island average
Your land is one point inside Rock Island
Everything above resolves to Rock Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Rock Island Average
Rock Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rock Island
- ●One soil character for all of Rock Island
- ●Frost dates read at Rock Island's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rock Island's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rock Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rock Island, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rock Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rock Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rock Island average
How we know this about Rock Island
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 Rock Island’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 Rock Island
When does frost risk typically end in Rock Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rock Island 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 Rock Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rock Island typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rock Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rock Island sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Oct 31, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rock Island?
The federal record around Rock Island is a meaningful one — 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Rock Island?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rock Island's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rock Island'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 Rock Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rock Island's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,791 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rock Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rock Island's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 14 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rock Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rock Island's boundary and the 7,791 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rock Island's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rock Island's 7,791 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Le Flore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Le Flore 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 Le Flore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rock Island's 7,791 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rock Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,791 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Rock Island-wide figureread your own land →