Catahoula Parish, in Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Catahoula Parish lies within the Mississippi Delta — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Catahoula Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Catahoula Parish, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Catahoula Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Catahoula Parish — the short answer
Catahoula Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 454K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 454K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Catahoula Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catahoula Parish's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Catahoula Parish
Across a year, Catahoula Parish accumulates about 6,004 growing degree days above 50°F, about 292 fewer than the middle Louisiana county — ahead of 23 of Louisiana’s 64 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 820 hours below 45°F, 208 more than the Louisiana middle of 612. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Catahoula County
Across Catahoula County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Sharkey, Tensas, and Dundee are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.7, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
45%
Hydric soils
56%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Catahoula Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Catahoula Parish as poorly drained — but another 49% drains differently: 27% somewhat poorly drained, 19% well drained.
Sharkey is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Tensas (9%) and Dundee (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Catahoula Parish
Each reading below is measured for Catahoula Parish itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Catahoula Parish are poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Catahoula Parish runs about pH 5.0–5.7, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCatahoula Parish runs about 289 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredCatahoula Parish 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 Catahoula Parish is in
Catahoula Parish spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Alluvial Plain (79%) and South Central Plains (21%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Catahoula Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against Catahoula Parish's own USDA zone 9a and its own 289-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile.
Is it too late to plant in Catahoula Parish?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (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 gets applied to farmland in Catahoula Parish
USGS estimates 190,591 lb of Glyphosate on Catahoula Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acephate (103,232 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (85,148 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Catahoula County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Catahoula County — 229 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Catahoula County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Catahoula Parish
Closest first, across Catahoula County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fisherman's MallUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- Ct-211Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- C & C GARAGE GOOD RDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- The Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Ct-349Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Sandy Lake Express MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Ct-50BNitrate · 2.6 mi
- Ct-50ANitrate · 2.6 mi
- Wurster Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 3264Brownfields · 2.7 mi
- Paulk's Quality MeatsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Larry's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catahoula Parish'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 Catahoula Parish.
Total Sites
229
across Catahoula County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Catahoula County
Severity Distribution
across Catahoula County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Catahoula Parish, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 156 sites across Catahoula County. 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 Catahoula Parish
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 Catahoula Parish average
Your land is one point inside Catahoula Parish
Everything above resolves to Catahoula Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 454K acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Catahoula Parish Average
Catahoula Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Catahoula Parish
- ●One soil character for all of Catahoula Parish
- ●Frost dates read at Catahoula Parish's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catahoula Parish's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Catahoula Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catahoula Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catahoula Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catahoula Parish average
How we know this about Catahoula Parish
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Catahoula Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Catahoula Parish
When does frost risk typically end in Catahoula Parish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catahoula Parish typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
How long is the growing season in Catahoula Parish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catahoula Parish sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catahoula Parish?
The federal record around Catahoula Parish is a meaningful one — 229 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (156), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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.
Everything above is measured at Catahoula Parish's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catahoula Parish's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Louisiana's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Catahoula Parish’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Catahoula Parish's own scale — its own ~289-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 229 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catahoula Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Catahoula Parish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~289-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Catahoula ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 229 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Catahoula Parish's boundary and the 453,921 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Catahoula Parish spans, Mississippi Alluvial Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Catahoula Parish farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Catahoula Parish — the ~289 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Catahoula Parish's 453,921 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 229 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Catahoula Parishread your own land →