Winn Parish, in 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.
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.
Winn 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
Winn Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Winn 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 Winn Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Winn Parish — the short answer
Winn Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 608K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 608K 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 Winn Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winn Parish's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Winn Parish
Across a year, Winn Parish accumulates about 5,923 growing degree days above 50°F, about 373 fewer than the middle Louisiana county — ahead of 19 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 891 hours below 45°F, 279 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 Winn County
Across Winn County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Sacul, Guyton, and Savannah are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
45%
Hydric soils
22%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Winn Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Winn Parish as moderately well drained — but another 50% drains differently: 25% somewhat poorly drained, 18% poorly drained.
Sacul is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Guyton (21%) and Savannah (14%).
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 Winn Parish
Each reading below is measured for Winn 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 Winn Parish are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Winn Parish runs about pH 5.0–5.3, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 22% of Winn Parish is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredWinn Parish runs about 281 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
The kind of country Winn Parish is in
Winn 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 Winn Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against Winn Parish's own USDA zone 8b and its own 281-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 Winn 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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (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. 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 Winn Parish
USGS estimates 1,740 lb of 2,4-d on Winn Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (540 lb) and Triclopyr (434 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 Winn County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Winn County — 359 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. 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 Winn 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 Winn Parish
Closest first, across Winn County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H & E MACHINE SHOP INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- FENOLI HEALTH CLINICBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Winn Parish Police JuryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HIXSON LUMBER SALES OF LOUISIANA INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- HIXSON LUMBER SALES OF LOUISIANA INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SIX C FABRICATION INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Hixson Lumber Sales of Louisiana IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Howards Conoco StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TIMMONS TRUCK CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Frazier Mach & Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FRAZIER MACH SUPPLY COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Murphy Oil USA #5820Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winn 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 Winn Parish.
Sources Checked
across Winn County
Severity Distribution
across Winn County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winn Parish, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 180 sites across Winn County. 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 Winn 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 Winn Parish average
Your land is one point inside Winn Parish
Everything above resolves to Winn Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 608K 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 Winn Parish Average
Winn Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Winn Parish
- ●One soil character for all of Winn Parish
- ●Frost dates read at Winn Parish's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winn Parish's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Winn Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winn Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winn Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winn Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winn Parish average
How we know this about Winn 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 Winn Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Winn Parish
When does frost risk typically end in Winn Parish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winn Parish typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Winn Parish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winn Parish sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 13, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winn Parish?
The federal record around Winn Parish is a meaningful one — 359 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (180), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Winn Parish's scale — its 8b band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winn 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 Winn Parish’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Winn Parish's own scale — its own ~281-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 359 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winn Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winn Parish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~281-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Winn ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 359 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Winn Parish's boundary and the 608,002 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Winn Parish sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Winn 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 Winn Parish — the ~281 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 Winn Parish's 608,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 359 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 Winn Parishread your own land →