DeRidder, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — 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, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in DeRidder, 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 DeRidder 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 DeRidder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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DeRidder — the short answer
DeRidder, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Beauregard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Beauregard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- Beauregard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Beauregard Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is DeRidder's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeRidder's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DeRidder
Each reading below is measured for DeRidder itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDeRidder runs about 305 days between hard freezes (read from Beauregard Parish, the closest normal to DeRidder) — 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
MeasuredDeRidder 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 DeRidder is in
DeRidder sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at DeRidder's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beauregard Parish.
What Grows in DeRidder
Every plant below cleared DeRidder's own zone 9a and its 305-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DeRidder?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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's on the federal record near DeRidder
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DeRidder. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEAUREGARD DAILY NEWSBrownfields · 700 ft
- CLASSIC PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 750 ft
- EUROPEAN DRY CLEANING BOUTIQUEBrownfields · 800 ft
- BARRIE SHAW STUDIOSBrownfields · 800 ft
- Billie's Wag-A-BagUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Sam EssmeierUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TOMS AUTO RPRBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Be-374Nitrate · 1400 ft
- DERIDDER CITY PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Be-4Nitrate · 1400 ft
- CENTERPOINT ENERGY SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Brookshire Brothers Ltd #6050Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeRidder'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 DeRidder.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DeRidder
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DeRidder
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeRidder, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 140 sites within ~10 miles of DeRidder. 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 DeRidder
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 DeRidder average
Your land is one point inside DeRidder
Everything above resolves to DeRidder as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Beauregard Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 DeRidder Average
DeRidder Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across DeRidder
- ●One soil character for all of DeRidder
- ●Frost dates read at DeRidder's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeRidder's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DeRidder
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeRidder, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeRidder averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeRidder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeRidder average
How we know this about DeRidder
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Beauregard 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 DeRidder
When does frost risk typically end in DeRidder?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeRidder typically lands around Feb 5, 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 Feb 26.
When is the first frost in DeRidder?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DeRidder typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 305 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DeRidder?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeRidder sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 23, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeRidder?
The federal record around DeRidder is a meaningful one — 354 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (140), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in DeRidder?
From about Nov 7 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 Dec 7 (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 Dec 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DeRidder's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeRidder'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 DeRidder’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at DeRidder's own scale — the 5,946 acres it covers and 354 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeRidder's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 354 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DeRidder, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DeRidder's boundary and the 5,946 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at DeRidder's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — DeRidder has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Beauregard Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so DeRidder's 5,946 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beauregard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beauregard 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 Beauregard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among DeRidder's 5,946 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DeRidder you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,946 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 DeRidder-wide figureread your own land →
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