Plain Dealing, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Plain Dealing, 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 Plain Dealing 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 Plain Dealing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Plain Dealing — the short answer
Plain Dealing, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Bossier Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Bossier Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Bossier 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 Bossier Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Plain Dealing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plain Dealing's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plain Dealing
Each reading below is measured for Plain Dealing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPlain Dealing runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Bossier Parish, the closest normal to Plain Dealing) — 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
MeasuredPlain Dealing sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Plain Dealing is in
Plain Dealing sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Plain Dealing's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bossier Parish.
What Grows in Plain Dealing
Every plant below cleared Plain Dealing's own zone 8b and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plain Dealing?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Plain Dealing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plain Dealing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Century Telephone Ent IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CANNON CUSTOMS LLCBrownfields · 600 ft
- Downtown ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Piggly Wiggly of Plain DealingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JS AUTO RPRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Curtis Allen Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Carrington's Kwik PackUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Bo-122Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Marlene'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Burt Glassell StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Century SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DOLLAR GENERALL #10778Brownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plain Dealing'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 Plain Dealing.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plain Dealing
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plain Dealing
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plain Dealing, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Plain Dealing. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Plain Dealing
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 Plain Dealing average
Your land is one point inside Plain Dealing
Everything above resolves to Plain Dealing as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bossier 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 Plain Dealing Average
Plain Dealing Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Plain Dealing
- ●One soil character for all of Plain Dealing
- ●Frost dates read at Plain Dealing's scale: Feb 22 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plain Dealing's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plain Dealing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plain Dealing, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plain Dealing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plain Dealing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plain Dealing average
How we know this about Plain Dealing
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 Bossier 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 Plain Dealing
When does frost risk typically end in Plain Dealing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plain Dealing typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Plain Dealing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plain Dealing typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plain Dealing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plain Dealing sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 14, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plain Dealing?
The federal record around Plain Dealing shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Plain Dealing?
From about Oct 29 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 Nov 28 (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 Nov 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Plain Dealing's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plain Dealing'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 Plain Dealing’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Plain Dealing's own scale — the 1,011 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plain Dealing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plain Dealing, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plain Dealing's boundary and the 1,011 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plain Dealing's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Plain Dealing has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bossier Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Plain Dealing's 1,011 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bossier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bossier 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 Bossier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plain Dealing's 1,011 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plain Dealing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,011 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Plain Dealing-wide figureread your own land →
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