Ferriday, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ferriday, 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 Ferriday 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 Ferriday — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ferriday — the short answer
Ferriday, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Concordia 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 Concordia Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ferriday's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferriday's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferriday
Each reading below is measured for Ferriday itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFerriday runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Concordia Parish, the closest normal to Ferriday) — 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
MeasuredFerriday 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 Ferriday is in
Ferriday sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ferriday's own centroid rather than borrowed from Concordia Parish.
What Grows in Ferriday
Every plant below cleared Ferriday's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ferriday?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Ferriday
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferriday. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Aden Grocery #2Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- AUTOZONE 3036Brownfields · 600 ft
- Co-4Nitrate · 950 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 22070Brownfields · 1600 ft
- LA VOTECH SHELBY JACKSON MEMORIAL INSTBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Co-31Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Easy Stop GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Express Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Donut KingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bill's TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Ferriday Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MORS INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferriday'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 Ferriday.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Ferriday
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferriday
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferriday
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferriday, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Ferriday. 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 Ferriday
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 Ferriday average
Your land is one point inside Ferriday
Everything above resolves to Ferriday as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Concordia 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 Ferriday Average
Ferriday Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ferriday
- ●One soil character for all of Ferriday
- ●Frost dates read at Ferriday's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferriday's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferriday
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferriday, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferriday averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferriday — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferriday average
How we know this about Ferriday
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 Concordia 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 Ferriday
When does frost risk typically end in Ferriday?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferriday typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Ferriday?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferriday typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferriday?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferriday sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 21, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferriday?
The federal record around Ferriday is a meaningful one — 196 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ferriday?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ferriday's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferriday'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 Ferriday’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ferriday's own scale — the 1,043 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferriday's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferriday, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferriday's boundary and the 1,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ferriday's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ferriday has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Concordia Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ferriday's 1,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Concordia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Concordia 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 Concordia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferriday's 1,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferriday you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ferriday-wide figureread your own land →
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