Killona, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Killona, 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 Killona 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 Killona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Killona — the short answer
Killona, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 337 days between hard freezes, across 510 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- St. Charles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 21
- St. Charles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~337
- St. Charles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 510 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 St. Charles Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Killona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Killona's 337-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Killona
Each reading below is measured for Killona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKillona runs about 337 days between hard freezes (read from St. Charles Parish, the closest normal to Killona) — 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
MeasuredKillona sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Killona is in
Killona sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Killona's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Charles Parish.
What Grows in Killona
Every plant below cleared Killona's own zone 9b and its 337-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Killona?
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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 21 — 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 Killona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Killona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENTERGY LOUISIANA LLC - WATERFORD 1&2 GENERATING PLANTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ENTERGY LOUISIANA LLC - WATERFORD 1&2 GENERATING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- Entergy Louisiana LLC - Waterford 1 & 2 Electric Generating PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ENTERGY LOUISIANA LLC - WATERFORD 3 STEAM ELECTRIC STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SC-56Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- CB&I LLC - ST CHARLES POWER STATION CCPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Entergy Louisiana LLC - Little Gypsy Generating Plant/St Charles Power StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SC-131Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- ENTERGY LOUISIANA LLC - LITTLE GYPSY GENERATING PLANTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Mosaic Fertilizer LLC - Taft PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SC-87Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- MOSAIC FERTILIZER LLC - TAFT PLANTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Killona'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 Killona.
Total Sites
711
within ~10 miles of Killona
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Killona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Killona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Killona, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Killona. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Killona
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 Killona average
Your land is one point inside Killona
Everything above resolves to Killona as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 510 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Charles 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 Killona Average
Killona Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Killona
- ●One soil character for all of Killona
- ●Frost dates read at Killona's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Killona's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Killona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Killona, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Killona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Killona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Killona average
How we know this about Killona
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 St. Charles 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 Killona
When does frost risk typically end in Killona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Killona typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Killona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Killona typically arrives around Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 7, so the watching starts about Nov 21 — about 337 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Killona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Killona sees about 337 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 7, about 302 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Killona?
The federal record around Killona is a meaningful one — 711 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (324), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Killona?
From about Nov 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Killona's scale — its 9b band and its 337-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Killona'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 Killona’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Killona's own scale — the 510 acres it covers and 711 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Killona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 711 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Killona, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Killona's boundary and the 510 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~337-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Killona's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Killona has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Charles Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Killona's 510 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Charles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Charles 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 St. Charles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Killona's 510 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Killona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 510 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Killona-wide figureread your own land →