Ama, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ama, 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 Ama 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 Ama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ama — the short answer
Ama, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 337 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- St. Charles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 21
- St. Charles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~337
- St. Charles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are St. Charles Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Ama's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ama's 337-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ama
Each reading below is measured for Ama itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAma runs about 337 days between hard freezes (read from St. Charles Parish, the closest normal to Ama) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAma sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Ama is in
Ama sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ama's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Charles Parish.
What Grows in Ama
Every plant below cleared Ama's own zone 9b and its 337-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ama?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Ama
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ama. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pierre's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ADM GRAIN RIVER SYSTEM INC - AMA GRAIN ELEVATOR FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Jackie Bee Investments LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- USDA AMS AMA LABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ADM Grain River System Inc - Ama Grain Elevator FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Jeannie's Food StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Sewerage & Water Board of New OrleansUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- St Rose HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Bonura Trailer ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- River Rd Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Portacan of New OrleansUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CC Sanitation Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ama'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 Ama.
Total Sites
2,576
within ~10 miles of Ama
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ama
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ama
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ama, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,607 sites within ~10 miles of Ama. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Ama
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 Ama average
Your land is one point inside Ama
Everything above resolves to Ama as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Charles Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Ama Average
Ama Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Ama
- ●One soil character for all of Ama
- ●Frost dates read at Ama's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ama's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ama
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ama, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ama averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ama average
How we know this about Ama
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 St. Charles Parish’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Ama
When does frost risk typically end in Ama?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ama typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 8.
When is the first frost in Ama?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ama typically arrives around Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 7, so the watching starts about Nov 21 — about 337 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ama?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ama sees about 337 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 7, about 302 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ama?
The federal record around Ama is a meaningful one — 2,576 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,607), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ama?
From about Nov 21 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 Dec 21 (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 Dec 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ama's scale — its 9b band and its 337-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ama'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 Ama’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ama's own scale — the 2,241 acres it covers and 2,576 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ama's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,576 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ama, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ama's boundary and the 2,241 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~337-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ama's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ama has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Charles Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ama's 2,241 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Charles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Charles County
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom St. Charles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ama's 2,241 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ama you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,241 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ama-wide figureread your own land →