Converse, 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 Converse, 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 Converse 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 Converse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Converse — the short answer
Converse, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- 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
- 1K 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 8b is Converse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Converse's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Converse
Each reading below is measured for Converse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsConverse runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Sabine Parish, the closest normal to Converse) — 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
MeasuredConverse 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 Converse is in
Converse sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Converse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sabine Parish.
What Grows in Converse
Every plant below cleared Converse's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Converse?
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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Converse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Converse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sa-421Nitrate · 400 ft
- Sa-451Nitrate · 550 ft
- Sa-13Nitrate · 550 ft
- Nichol's WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Sa-452ANitrate · 1500 ft
- Sa-452BNitrate · 1500 ft
- Smith's Place SP# 024-04-0021 Sta# 484+15Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Daughertys GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- O F Browns GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Rannie DaughertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #13616Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Smith's Place SP #025-04-0021 STA #484+15Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Converse'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 Converse.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Converse
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Converse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Converse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Converse, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Converse. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Converse
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 Converse average
Your land is one point inside Converse
Everything above resolves to Converse as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K 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 Converse Average
Converse Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Converse
- ●One soil character for all of Converse
- ●Frost dates read at Converse's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Converse's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Converse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Converse, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Converse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Converse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Converse average
How we know this about Converse
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 Converse
When does frost risk typically end in Converse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Converse 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 Converse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Converse 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 Converse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Converse 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 Converse?
The federal record around Converse shows 89 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate 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 Converse?
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 Converse's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Converse'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 Converse’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Converse's own scale — the 1,396 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Converse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Converse, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Converse's boundary and the 1,396 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Converse's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Converse 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 Converse's 1,396 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 Converse's 1,396 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Converse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,396 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 Converse-wide figureread your own land →
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