Tushka, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tushka, 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 Tushka 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 Tushka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tushka — the short answer
Tushka, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- 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
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 484 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 Tushka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tushka's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tushka
Each reading below is measured for Tushka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTushka runs about 241 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
MeasuredTushka 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 Tushka is in
Tushka sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tushka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atoka County.
What Grows in Tushka
Every plant below cleared Tushka's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tushka?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (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 Tushka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tushka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tushka SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Tushka Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ATOKA TRAILER & MFG. LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Pilot Travel Center #498-02Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Love's Country Store #268Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- WALMART #232Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- Estep Chevrolet-BuickUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS #656Brownfields · 4.1 mi
- Burke Tire & Auto Shop(Odot)Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Dba Mr Mcgoo'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Choctaw Travel Plaza AtokaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- OdotUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tushka'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 Tushka.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tushka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tushka, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Tushka. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Tushka
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 Tushka average
Your land is one point inside Tushka
Everything above resolves to Tushka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 484 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 Tushka Average
Tushka Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tushka
- ●One soil character for all of Tushka
- ●Frost dates read at Tushka's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tushka's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tushka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tushka, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tushka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tushka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tushka average
How we know this about Tushka
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 Tushka’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 Tushka
When does frost risk typically end in Tushka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tushka typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Tushka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tushka 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 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tushka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tushka sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 31, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tushka?
The federal record around Tushka shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tushka?
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 Tushka's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tushka'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 Tushka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tushka's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 484 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tushka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tushka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 14 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tushka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tushka's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tushka's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tushka's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atoka 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 Atoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tushka's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tushka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Tushka-wide figureread your own land →