Belmont, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Belmont, 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 Belmont 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 Belmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Belmont — the short answer
Belmont, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Sabine Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Sabine Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Sabine Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Sabine Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Belmont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belmont's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belmont
Each reading below is measured for Belmont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBelmont runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Sabine Parish, the closest normal to Belmont) — 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
MeasuredBelmont sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Belmont is in
Belmont sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belmont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sabine Parish.
What Grows in Belmont
Every plant below cleared Belmont's own zone 9a and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belmont?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Belmont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belmont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Zwolle ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Sa-411Nitrate · 1300 ft
- Sa-412Nitrate · 1300 ft
- Sa-138Nitrate · 1400 ft
- Howard Cash StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Robert Kelly GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Sa-134Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- Na-199Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- Podnas ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- SEEGER AUTO RPRBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- Barnes ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Pleasant Hill TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belmont'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 Belmont.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Belmont
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belmont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belmont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belmont, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Belmont. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Belmont
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 Belmont average
Your land is one point inside Belmont
Everything above resolves to Belmont as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sabine 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 Belmont Average
Belmont Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Belmont
- ●One soil character for all of Belmont
- ●Frost dates read at Belmont's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belmont's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belmont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belmont, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belmont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belmont average
How we know this about Belmont
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 Sabine 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 Belmont
When does frost risk typically end in Belmont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belmont typically lands around Feb 17, 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in Belmont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belmont typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belmont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belmont sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 18, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belmont?
The federal record around Belmont shows 131 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Belmont?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belmont's scale — its 9a band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belmont'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 Belmont’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Belmont's own scale — the 6,420 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belmont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belmont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belmont's boundary and the 6,420 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belmont's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Belmont has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sabine Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belmont's 6,420 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sabine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sabine 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 Sabine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belmont's 6,420 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belmont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,420 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Belmont-wide figureread your own land →
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