Tulsa, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Tulsa, 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 Tulsa 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 Tulsa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tulsa — the short answer
Tulsa, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 127K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- 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
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 127K 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 Tulsa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tulsa's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tulsa
Each reading below is measured for Tulsa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTulsa runs about 247 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
MeasuredTulsa 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 Tulsa is in
Tulsa sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tulsa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tulsa County.
What Grows in Tulsa
Every plant below cleared Tulsa's own zone 7b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tulsa?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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 Tulsa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tulsa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IMPERIAL CLEANERS #15Brownfields · 800 ft
- J & S Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- J & S AUTO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 900 ft
- Circle K #2688Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PRO HELMET DESIGNBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Goodyear Tire & Rubber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Hornet Oil #10Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Nichols MarineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Kum & Go #883Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Friendly Food And GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Former GulfmartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Git N Go #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tulsa'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 Tulsa.
Total Sites
2,562
within ~10 miles of Tulsa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tulsa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tulsa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tulsa, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 274 sites within ~10 miles of Tulsa. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Tulsa
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 Tulsa average
Your land is one point inside Tulsa
Everything above resolves to Tulsa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 127K 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 Tulsa Average
Tulsa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Tulsa
- ●One soil character for all of Tulsa
- ●Frost dates read at Tulsa's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tulsa's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tulsa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tulsa, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tulsa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tulsa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tulsa average
How we know this about Tulsa
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 Tulsa’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 Tulsa
When does frost risk typically end in Tulsa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tulsa typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Tulsa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tulsa 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 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tulsa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tulsa sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 3, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tulsa?
The federal record around Tulsa is a meaningful one — 2,562 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,432), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Tulsa?
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 Tulsa's scale — its 7b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tulsa'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 Tulsa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tulsa's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 126,552 acres it covers and 2,562 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tulsa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tulsa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 17 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,562 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tulsa, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tulsa's boundary and the 126,552 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tulsa's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tulsa's 126,552 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tulsa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tulsa 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 Tulsa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tulsa's 126,552 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tulsa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 126,552 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Tulsa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaTulsa sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides