Plaquemines Parish, in Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Plaquemines Parish lies within the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi Delta — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring
Plaquemines Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Plaquemines Parish — the short answer
Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 500K acres.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, county record
- County area
- 500K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Frost-free — but not in every corner
Plaquemines Parish's own 30-year record carries no 28°F killing freeze. That is measured at the county's record, though, not promised for every acre in it — and 2 towns inside it have their own 30-year record showing a killing freeze: New Orleans Station (a 330-day season) and Pointe a la Hache (333).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of those pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record
Zone 10a is Plaquemines Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plaquemines Parish's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Plaquemines Parish
Across a year, Plaquemines Parish accumulates about 7,460 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,164 more than the middle Louisiana county — ahead of every other Louisiana county. 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 0 hours below 45°F, 612 fewer 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 Plaquemines County
Across Plaquemines County, the ground is predominantly Histosols, where Clovelly, Lafitte, and Balize are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–7.3, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Histosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
96%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Plaquemines Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 33% of Plaquemines Parish as very poorly drained — but another 8% drains differently: 5% poorly drained, 3% somewhat poorly drained.
Clovelly is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Lafitte (11%) and Balize (10%).
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 Plaquemines Parish
Each reading below is measured for Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish are very 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 Plaquemines Parish runs about pH 6.2–7.3, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredPlaquemines Parish records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 30-year station record — 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
MeasuredPlaquemines Parish sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Plaquemines Parish is in
Plaquemines Parish sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Plaquemines Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against Plaquemines Parish's own USDA zone 10a and its own 365-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.
Documented around Plaquemines Parish
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Plaquemines Parish
USGS estimates 4,065 lb of 2,4-d on Plaquemines Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (3,404 lb) and Triclopyr (640 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 Plaquemines County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Plaquemines County — 432 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 28 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish
Closest first, across Plaquemines County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Blanchard's Auto & Industrial SuppliesUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- DANOS & CUROLE MARINE CONTRACTORSBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- Red Man Pipe & SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- KENS BOAT RENTAL INCBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- Solid Waste South Maintenance ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- PLAQUEMINES PARISH SCHOOL BOARD SOUTHBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- BORNE OWEN SR & JR BOAT SERVICEBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNIATIONS INC J2530Brownfields · 5.6 mi
- Happy Land Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- BURASBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- MOBIL PIPELINE EMPIRE WEST STATIONBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- PHILIPPE LOGAGLIO MDBrownfields · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish.
Total Sites
432
across Plaquemines County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
28 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Plaquemines County
Severity Distribution
across Plaquemines County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plaquemines Parish, two things run higher than the national average across Plaquemines County — Brownfields (302 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish average
Your land is one point inside Plaquemines Parish
Everything above resolves to Plaquemines Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 500K 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 Plaquemines Parish Average
Plaquemines Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Plaquemines Parish
- ●One soil character for all of Plaquemines Parish
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plaquemines Parish's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Plaquemines Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plaquemines Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plaquemines Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plaquemines Parish average
How we know this about Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Plaquemines Parish
Is it too late to plant in Plaquemines Parish?
No — Plaquemines Parish has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Plaquemines Parish?
It doesn't — Plaquemines Parish records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Plaquemines Parish?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Plaquemines Parish contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plaquemines Parish?
The federal record around Plaquemines Parish is a meaningful one — 432 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (302), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 5.4 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 Plaquemines Parish's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Plaquemines Parish's own scale — a 30-year record with no killing freeze in it, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 432 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plaquemines Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in Plaquemines Parish's own 30-year station record — a year-round growing season, measured here rather than inheritedNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Plaquemines ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 432 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 5.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Plaquemines Parish's boundary and the 499,580 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Plaquemines Parish sitting wholly inside the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Plaquemines Parish for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish — the ~365 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 Plaquemines Parish's 499,580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 432 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 Plaquemines Parishread your own land →