Oklahoma
Planting zones in Tillman County, Oklahoma
This county spans USDA zones 7b to 8a, so there is no single zone for Tillman County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 86% of its ZIP codes are zone 8a; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Tillman County, Oklahoma as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact β enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
The growing season in Tillman County is closing
Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives November 4 β November 10 across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county .
Your next season already has a date
The first job of it is π§ Green Onions, start indoors, around January 29 β February 6 β counted back from a last spring freeze of March 26 β April 3 here.
These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.
All 4 stations agreeAt least one station
Every one of the 4 NOAA stations serving this county counts April 3 β November 4 as growing season (215 days). Widening to any single station gives March 26 β November 10 (229 days).
Which zone you are in depends where you are
Tillman County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it β fine for the 86% in zone 8a and wrong for the other 14%. Here is the actual split.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8a | 6 | 86% | |
| 7b | 1 | 14% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
Across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians β half of years freeze later than the date shown β so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.
The growing season runs 213β229 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 95.1β95.9 Β°F in JuneβAugust. That is past the point where tomato and pepper pollen fails and cool-season greens bolt, so in this county heat decides as much as frost does. Summer rain over the same months runs 8.6" across those 1 stations, against the rough inch a week β about 13 inches over the same 92 days β that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 65% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 96 Β°F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
Every ZIP code in Tillman County
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is β the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.
| ZIP code | USDA zone | Nearest NOAA station | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 73530 | 8a | Altus Afb, OK | 13.8 km |
| 73542 | 8a | Altus Afb, OK | 5.4 km |
| 73546 | 8a | Grandfield 3W Mesonet, OK | 2.6 km |
| 73551 | 8a | Altus Afb, OK | 10.7 km |
| 73553 | 8a | Grandfield 3W Mesonet, OK | 10.8 km |
| 73555 | 8a | Frederick, OK | 13.8 km |
| 73570 | 7b | Tipton 4S Mesonet, OK | 8.6 km |
ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.
When to start seeds in Tillman County
Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 4 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| π§ Green Onions | Start indoors | January 29 β February 6 | 8 wk before |
| πΆοΈ Peppers | Start indoors | January 29 β February 6 | 8 wk before |
| π₯¦ Broccoli | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π₯¬ Cabbage | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π₯¬ Collards | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π₯¬ Kale | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π₯¬ Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π« Peas | Direct sow | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π₯¬ Spinach | Direct sow | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π Sweet Potato | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π Tomatoes | Start indoors | February 12 β February 20 | 6 wk before |
| π₯¬ Bok Choy | Start indoors | February 19 β February 27 | 5 wk before |
| π₯¬ Kohlrabi | Start indoors | February 19 β February 27 | 5 wk before |
| π₯¬ Swiss Chard | Start indoors | February 19 β February 27 | 5 wk before |
| π₯¬ Arugula | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π₯¬ Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π₯ Beets | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π§ Green Onions | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π₯¬ Mustard Greens | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| πΆοΈ Okra | Start indoors | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π± Radishes | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π₯ Turnips | Direct sow | February 26 β March 6 | 4 wk before |
| π₯¬ Cabbage | Set out | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯ Carrots | Direct sow | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Collards | Direct sow | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Collards | Set out | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯ Cucumbers | Start indoors | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π§ Green Onions | Set out | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Kale | Direct sow | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Kale | Set out | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Kohlrabi | Direct sow | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Kohlrabi | Set out | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π Pumpkins | Start indoors | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π Summer Squash | Start indoors | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π Winter Squash | Start indoors | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯ Zucchini | Start indoors | March 5 β March 13 | 3 wk before |
| π₯¬ Bok Choy | Direct sow | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| π₯¬ Bok Choy | Set out | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| π₯¦ Broccoli | Set out | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| πΏ Cilantro | Direct sow | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| π₯¬ Leaf Lettuce | Set out | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| π₯¬ Swiss Chard | Direct sow | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| π₯¬ Swiss Chard | Set out | March 12 β March 20 | 2 wk before |
| πΏ Dill | Direct sow | March 19 β March 27 | 1 wk before |
| π« Bush Beans | Direct sow | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π₯ Cucumbers | Set out | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Pumpkins | Direct sow | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Pumpkins | Set out | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Summer Squash | Direct sow | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Summer Squash | Set out | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π½ Sweet Corn | Direct sow | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Tomatoes | Set out | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Winter Squash | Direct sow | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π Winter Squash | Set out | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π₯ Zucchini | Direct sow | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π₯ Zucchini | Set out | April 2 β April 10 | 1 wk after |
| π₯ Cucumbers | Direct sow | April 9 β April 17 | 2 wk after |
| πΆοΈ Okra | Direct sow | April 9 β April 17 | 2 wk after |
| πΆοΈ Okra | Set out | April 9 β April 17 | 2 wk after |
| πΆοΈ Peppers | Set out | April 9 β April 17 | 2 wk after |
| π« Southern Peas | Direct sow | April 9 β April 17 | 2 wk after |
| π Sweet Potato | Set out | April 9 β April 17 | 2 wk after |
Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.
What survives the winter changes across Tillman County
Zone 8a carries 57 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 7b carries 56. The best number is not always the warmest zone β the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.
Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service β a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.
Cautious β shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic
- Last spring freeze
- Plan to April 22 to be careful. Median March 26 β April 3 across 4 stations; March 8 is the optimistic end.
- First fall freeze
- Plan to October 20 to be careful. Median November 4 β November 10 across 4 stations; November 27 is the optimistic end.
NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages β the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.
The 4 stations behind these numbers
All 4 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 22 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below β this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.
A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.
These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest β not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Altus Afb, OK | USW00003981 | March 26 | November 10 | 229 days |
| Frederick, OK | USC00343353 | April 3 | November 4 | 213 days |
| Grandfield 3W Mesonet, OK | USC00343707 | March 31 | November 6 | 219 days |
| Tipton 4S Mesonet, OK | USC00348879 | April 3 | November 6 | 217 days |
These are medians, not averages β NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.
Other places to compare
Tillman County sits in Oklahoma. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.
More of Oklahoma
- Beaver County, OK 6bβ7a
- Custer County, OK 7aβ7b
- Ellis County, OK 7a
- Kingfisher County, OK 7aβ7b
- Washington County, OK 7a
- Woods County, OK 7a
- Craig County, OK 7a
- Jefferson County, OK 8a
- Le Flore County, OK 7bβ8a
- McCurtain County, OK 7bβ8a
- Caddo County, OK 7b
- Carter County, OK 8a
Counties with the same zones β 7bβ8a
Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them β the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Shade clothSummer highs here average 96 Β°F, at or above the 90 Β°F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
- Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above β a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
- MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 7b, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991β2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.
County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code β and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.