Fort Polk South, 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.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Polk South, 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 Fort Polk South 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 Fort Polk South — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Polk South — the short answer
Fort Polk South, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Vernon Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Vernon Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~295
- Vernon Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Vernon Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Fort Polk South's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Polk South's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Polk South
Each reading below is measured for Fort Polk South itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Polk South runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Vernon Parish, the closest normal to Fort Polk South) — 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
MeasuredFort Polk South 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 Fort Polk South is in
Fort Polk South sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Polk South's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vernon Parish.
What Grows in Fort Polk South
Every plant below cleared Fort Polk South's own zone 9a and its 295-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Polk South?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Fort Polk South
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Polk South. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- V-496Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- V-518Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- V-497Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- FORT POLK & PEASON RIDGESuperfund · 1.2 mi
- Royal Express, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Sachi of Leesville LLC - Polk XpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LOGREE AUTOMOTIVE & COLLISION CTRBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- John R JeaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LA ANG TUSA SUPPORTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FORT POLK NORTH WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.6 mi
- FORT POLK SOUTH WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.6 mi
- U.S. ARMY, FORT POLKSuperfund · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Polk South'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 Fort Polk South.
Total Sites
295
within ~10 miles of Fort Polk South
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Polk South
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Polk South
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Polk South, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Polk South. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Fort Polk South
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 Fort Polk South average
Your land is one point inside Fort Polk South
Everything above resolves to Fort Polk South as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Vernon 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 Fort Polk South Average
Fort Polk South Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Fort Polk South
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Polk South
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Polk South's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Polk South's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Polk South
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Polk South, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Polk South averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Polk South — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Polk South average
How we know this about Fort Polk South
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 Vernon 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 Fort Polk South
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Polk South?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Polk South typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Fort Polk South?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Polk South typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 295 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Polk South?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Polk South sees about 295 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 19, about 260 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Polk South?
The federal record around Fort Polk South is a meaningful one — 295 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (115), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Fort Polk South?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Polk South's scale — its 9a band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Polk South'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 Fort Polk South’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Polk South's own scale — the 3,932 acres it covers and 295 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Polk South's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 295 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Polk South, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Polk South's boundary and the 3,932 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~295-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Polk South's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Polk South has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Vernon Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Polk South's 3,932 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vernon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vernon 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 Vernon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Polk South's 3,932 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Polk South you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,932 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Fort Polk South-wide figureread your own land →
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