Iota, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Iota, 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 Iota 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 Iota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Iota — the short answer
Iota, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 813 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 30
- Acadia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Acadia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- Acadia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 813 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 Acadia Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Iota's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Iota's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Iota
Each reading below is measured for Iota itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIota runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Acadia Parish, the closest normal to Iota) — 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
MeasuredIota 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 Iota is in
Iota sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Iota's own centroid rather than borrowed from Acadia Parish.
What Grows in Iota
Every plant below cleared Iota's own zone 9a and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Iota?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 30 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Iota
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Iota. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL 7755Brownfields · 1700 ft
- C&H Super ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Robert B LejeuneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MARCO OF IOTASuperfund · 1900 ft
- Ac-168Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Ac-317Nitrate · 2000 ft
- J & W Sports and Equipment IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ac-337Nitrate · 2600 ft
- Ac-6642ZNitrate · 1.4 mi
- COUNTRY MECHANIC SHOPBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- STANFORD TRUCK LINESBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Ac-6112ZNitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Iota'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 Iota.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Iota
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Iota
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Iota, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Iota — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (60 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Iota
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 Iota average
Your land is one point inside Iota
Everything above resolves to Iota as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 813 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Acadia 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 Iota Average
Iota Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Iota
- ●One soil character for all of Iota
- ●Frost dates read at Iota's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Iota's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Iota
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Iota, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Iota averages can't show:
We read public map data around Iota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Iota average
How we know this about Iota
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 Acadia 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 Iota
When does frost risk typically end in Iota?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Iota typically lands around Jan 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Iota?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Iota 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 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Iota?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Iota sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Jan 30 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 20 to Nov 23, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Iota?
The federal record around Iota is a meaningful one — 174 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Iota?
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 Iota's scale — its 9a band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Iota'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 Iota’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Iota's own scale — the 813 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Iota's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Iota, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Iota's boundary and the 813 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Iota's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Iota has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Acadia Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Iota's 813 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Acadia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Acadia 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 Acadia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Iota's 813 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Iota you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 813 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Iota-wide figureread your own land →
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