Pine Prairie, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Pine Prairie, 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 Pine Prairie 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 Pine Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pine Prairie — the short answer
Pine Prairie, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Evangeline 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 Evangeline Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Pine Prairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Prairie's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Prairie
Each reading below is measured for Pine Prairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPine Prairie runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Evangeline Parish, the closest normal to Pine Prairie) — 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
MeasuredPine Prairie 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 Pine Prairie is in
Pine Prairie sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Prairie's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Evangeline Parish is mostly Western Gulf Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine Prairie
Every plant below cleared Pine Prairie's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Prairie?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Pine Prairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Prairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TATE OIL COBrownfields · 700 ft
- Pine Prairie Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TJ's Tire & Service Center Co LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Ev-664ANitrate · 1000 ft
- Ev-664BNitrate · 1000 ft
- Ev-663Nitrate · 1000 ft
- Ev-664CNitrate · 1000 ft
- TARGA MIDSTREAMBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Alcide FontenotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LC's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Community StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Easton ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Prairie'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 Pine Prairie.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Prairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Prairie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Prairie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Prairie — Nitrate (102 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Prairie
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 Pine Prairie average
Your land is one point inside Pine Prairie
Everything above resolves to Pine Prairie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Evangeline 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 Pine Prairie Average
Pine Prairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pine Prairie
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Prairie
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Prairie's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Prairie's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Prairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Prairie, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Prairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Prairie average
How we know this about Pine Prairie
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 Evangeline 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 Pine Prairie
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Prairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Prairie typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Pine Prairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Prairie typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Prairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Prairie sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 24, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Prairie?
The federal record around Pine Prairie is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Brownfields 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 Pine Prairie?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Prairie's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Prairie'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 Pine Prairie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pine Prairie's own scale — the 1,032 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Prairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Prairie, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Prairie's boundary and the 1,032 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pine Prairie sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pine Prairie has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Evangeline Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Prairie's 1,032 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Evangeline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Evangeline 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 Evangeline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Prairie's 1,032 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Prairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,032 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Pine Prairie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Growing region
Nearby growing guides