Collinston, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Collinston, 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 Collinston 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 Collinston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Collinston — the short answer
Collinston, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 721 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Morehouse Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Morehouse Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- Morehouse Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 721 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 Morehouse Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Collinston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Collinston's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Collinston
Each reading below is measured for Collinston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCollinston runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from Morehouse Parish, the closest normal to Collinston) — 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
MeasuredCollinston sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Collinston is in
Collinston sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Collinston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morehouse Parish.
What Grows in Collinston
Every plant below cleared Collinston's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Collinston?
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 Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Collinston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Collinston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mo-22Nitrate · 250 ft
- Mo-253Nitrate · 250 ft
- P&G GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Collinston GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #25406Brownfields · 800 ft
- Collinston StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Bob & Anns SupermarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Frankie's Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Speedy Mac'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mo-5171ZNitrate · 1.2 mi
- Collinston Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Mo-358ANitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Collinston'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 Collinston.
Total Sites
339
within ~10 miles of Collinston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Collinston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Collinston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Collinston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 116 sites within ~10 miles of Collinston. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Collinston
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 Collinston average
Your land is one point inside Collinston
Everything above resolves to Collinston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 721 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Morehouse 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 Collinston Average
Collinston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Collinston
- ●One soil character for all of Collinston
- ●Frost dates read at Collinston's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Collinston's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Collinston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Collinston, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Collinston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Collinston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Collinston average
How we know this about Collinston
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 Morehouse 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 Collinston
When does frost risk typically end in Collinston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Collinston typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Collinston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Collinston typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Collinston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Collinston sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 14, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Collinston?
The federal record around Collinston is a meaningful one — 339 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Collinston?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Collinston's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Collinston'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 Collinston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Collinston's own scale — the 721 acres it covers and 339 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Collinston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 339 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Collinston, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Collinston's boundary and the 721 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Collinston's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Collinston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Morehouse Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Collinston's 721 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morehouse County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morehouse 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 Morehouse County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Collinston's 721 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Collinston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 721 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Collinston-wide figureread your own land →
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