Sour John, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sour John, 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 Sour John 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 Sour John — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sour John — the short answer
Sour John, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Sour John's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sour John's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sour John
Each reading below is measured for Sour John itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSour John runs about 236 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
MeasuredSour John 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 Sour John is in
Sour John sits in the Boston Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sour John's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Muskogee County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sour John
Every plant below cleared Sour John's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sour John?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Sour John
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sour John. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEBBERS FALLS LOCK AND DAM 16Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- Quik Stop Grocery and GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Fin & Feather Resort IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Braggs Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Strayhorn MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- US ARMY COE TENKILLER PROJECTBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- Braggs Grocery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- U.S. Army Corps Of EngineersUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Webbers Falls L&D #16Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Webbers Falls L & D 16Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAMP GRUBERBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAMP GRUBERToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sour John'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 Sour John.
Total Sites
46
within ~10 miles of Sour John
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sour John
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sour John
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sour John, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sour John — Underground Storage Tanks (31 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Sour John
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 Sour John average
Your land is one point inside Sour John
Everything above resolves to Sour John as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Sour John Average
Sour John Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sour John
- ●One soil character for all of Sour John
- ●Frost dates read at Sour John's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sour John's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sour John
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sour John, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sour John averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sour John — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sour John average
How we know this about Sour John
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 Sour John’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 Sour John
When does frost risk typically end in Sour John?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sour John typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Sour John?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sour John typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sour John?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sour John sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 29, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sour John?
The federal record around Sour John shows 46 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Brownfields record about 3.0 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 Sour John?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sour John's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sour John'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 Sour John’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sour John's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,633 acres it covers and 46 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sour John's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sour John's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 12 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 46 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sour John, the closest Brownfields record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sour John's boundary and the 3,633 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sour John sits in the Boston Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sour John's 3,633 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Muskogee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Muskogee 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 Muskogee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sour John's 3,633 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sour John you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,633 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 3.0 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 Sour John-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaSour John sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides