Erath, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, satsuma orange, live oak, and pecan to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Erath, 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 Erath 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 Erath — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Erath — the short answer
Erath, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 315 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Vermilion Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Vermilion Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~315
- Vermilion Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Vermilion Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Erath's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Erath's 315-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Erath
Each reading below is measured for Erath itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsErath runs about 315 days between hard freezes (read from Vermilion Parish, the closest normal to Erath) — 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
MeasuredErath 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 Erath is in
Erath sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Erath's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vermilion Parish.
What Grows in Erath
Plants matched to Erath's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Erath?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Erath
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Erath. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE PEIGNEUR ABANDONED DRUMSuperfund · 500 ft
- Country Store #4Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Ve-137Nitrate · 800 ft
- Primeaux Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Domingue TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Sky ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Handy PakUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SIMON CLNRSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Tiger Touchdown #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Quality Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- C&M MARINE SERVICES USABrownfields · 2600 ft
- Farmers GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Erath'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 Erath.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Erath
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Erath
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Erath, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Erath. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Erath
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 Erath average
Your land is one point inside Erath
Everything above resolves to Erath as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Vermilion Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Erath Average
Erath Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Erath
- ●One soil character for all of Erath
- ●Frost dates read at Erath's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Erath's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Erath
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Erath, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Erath averages can't show:
We read public map data around Erath — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Erath average
How we know this about Erath
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Vermilion 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Erath
When does frost risk typically end in Erath?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Erath typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Erath?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Erath typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 315 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Erath?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Erath sees about 315 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Nov 22, about 280 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Erath?
The federal record around Erath runs heavier than most — 507 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (216), the nearest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Erath?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Erath's scale — its 9a band and its 315-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Erath'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 Erath’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Erath's own scale — the 1,124 acres it covers and 507 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Erath's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 507 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Erath, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Erath's boundary and the 1,124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Erath's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Erath has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Vermilion Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Erath's 1,124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vermilion County
- The candidate plant list — Louisiana's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Louisiana
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vermilion 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 Vermilion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Erath's 1,124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Erath you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,124 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Erath-wide figureread your own land →
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