De Soto Parish, in Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
De Soto Parish lies within the Piney Woods — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
De Soto Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across De Soto 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 De Soto Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
De Soto Parish — the short answer
De Soto Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 561K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 561K 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 8b is De Soto Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against De Soto Parish's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in De Soto Parish
Across a year, De Soto Parish accumulates about 5,817 growing degree days above 50°F, about 479 fewer than the middle Louisiana county — ahead of 15 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 919 hours below 45°F, 307 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 De Soto County
Across De Soto County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Eastwood, Keithville, and Guyton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
40%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across De Soto Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 49% of De Soto Parish as well drained — but another 49% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 16% poorly drained.
Eastwood is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Keithville (12%) and Guyton (8%).
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 De Soto Parish
Each reading below is measured for De Soto 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 De Soto Parish are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across De Soto Parish runs about pH 4.8–5.3, 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
MeasuredDe Soto Parish runs about 282 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
MeasuredDe Soto Parish 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 De Soto Parish is in
De Soto Parish sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in De Soto Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against De Soto Parish's own USDA zone 8b and its own 282-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 De Soto Parish?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 30 — 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.
Documented around De Soto Parish
- monarch butterfly7 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in De Soto Parish
USGS estimates 69,562 lb of 2,4-d on De Soto Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (4,895 lb) and Triclopyr (4,593 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 De Soto County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across De Soto County — 505 documented sites across 6 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 De Soto 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 De Soto Parish
Closest first, across De Soto County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL # 17562Brownfields · 1800 ft
- Cobb's Texaco Spn#025-06-0027Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CENTRAL SCHOOL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Central School CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Desoto Parish Police Jury - C E Williams AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ACME ROMAC INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- MBIL Holdings LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- D & D AVIATION INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- DESOTO PARISH POLICE JURY- C.E. WILLIAMS AIRPORTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- DS-59Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- DS-421BNitrate · 1.4 mi
- DS-421ANitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from De Soto 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 De Soto Parish.
Total Sites
505
across De Soto County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across De Soto County
Severity Distribution
across De Soto County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around De Soto Parish, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 292 sites across De Soto 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 De Soto 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 De Soto Parish average
Your land is one point inside De Soto Parish
Everything above resolves to De Soto Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 561K 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 De Soto Parish Average
De Soto Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across De Soto Parish
- ●One soil character for all of De Soto Parish
- ●Frost dates read at De Soto Parish's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not De Soto Parish's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in De Soto Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in De Soto Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that De Soto Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around De Soto Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the De Soto Parish average
How we know this about De Soto 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 De Soto Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about De Soto Parish
When does frost risk typically end in De Soto Parish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in De Soto Parish 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.
How long is the growing season in De Soto Parish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, De Soto Parish sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 16, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in De Soto Parish?
The federal record around De Soto Parish is a meaningful one — 505 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (292), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 De Soto Parish's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of De Soto 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 De Soto Parish’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at De Soto Parish's own scale — its own ~282-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 505 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- De Soto Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- De Soto Parish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in De Soto ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 505 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- De Soto Parish's boundary and the 560,928 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- De Soto Parish sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in De Soto Parish for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto De Soto 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 De Soto Parish — the ~282 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 De Soto Parish's 560,928 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 505 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 De Soto Parishread your own land →