Cotton Valley, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cotton Valley, 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 Cotton Valley 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 Cotton Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cotton Valley — the short answer
Cotton Valley, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Webster Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Webster Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Webster 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 Webster Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cotton Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cotton Valley's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cotton Valley
Each reading below is measured for Cotton Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCotton Valley runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Webster Parish, the closest normal to Cotton Valley) — 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
MeasuredCotton Valley 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 Cotton Valley is in
Cotton Valley sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cotton Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster Parish.
What Grows in Cotton Valley
Every plant below cleared Cotton Valley's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cotton Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Cotton Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cotton Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Maxwell's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Wingfield Truck & EquipmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Wb-331Nitrate · 1800 ft
- EOTT ENERGY CORPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- NORTH WEBSTER TRANSPORTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MOORES GARAGEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Hunt Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Marathon Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Holloway's Drive InUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Cotton Valley StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Wb-168Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- EOTT Energy - Cotton Valley District OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cotton Valley'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 Cotton Valley.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Cotton Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cotton Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cotton Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cotton Valley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Cotton Valley. 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 Cotton Valley
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 Cotton Valley average
Your land is one point inside Cotton Valley
Everything above resolves to Cotton Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webster 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 Cotton Valley Average
Cotton Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cotton Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Cotton Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Cotton Valley's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cotton Valley's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cotton Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cotton Valley, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cotton Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cotton Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cotton Valley average
How we know this about Cotton Valley
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 Webster 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 Cotton Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Cotton Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cotton Valley typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Cotton Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cotton Valley typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cotton Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cotton Valley sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 13, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cotton Valley?
The federal record around Cotton Valley shows 86 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cotton Valley?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cotton Valley's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cotton Valley'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 Cotton Valley’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cotton Valley's own scale — the 1,684 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cotton Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cotton Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cotton Valley's boundary and the 1,684 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cotton Valley's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cotton Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webster Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cotton Valley's 1,684 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cotton Valley's 1,684 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cotton Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,684 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cotton Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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