Port Sulphur, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Port Sulphur, 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 Port Sulphur 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 Port Sulphur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Port Sulphur — the short answer
Port Sulphur, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 346 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~346
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Port Sulphur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Sulphur's 346-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Sulphur
Each reading below is measured for Port Sulphur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Sulphur runs about 346 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPort Sulphur 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 Port Sulphur is in
Port Sulphur sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Sulphur's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plaquemines Parish.
What Grows in Port Sulphur
Every plant below cleared Port Sulphur's own zone 9b and its 346-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Sulphur?
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 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 26 — 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 Port Sulphur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Sulphur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL #10841Brownfields · 1700 ft
- Delta Drugs of Port SulphurUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NAPA BLANCHARDBrownfields · 2000 ft
- KNOX MEDICALBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PLAQUEMINES MEDICAL CENTER HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company LLC - Compressor Station 527Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE CO #527Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- La Cassa IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BLUE RIVER CO INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Southern Natural Gas - Port Sulphur Sub DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Plaquemines Parish Commission - Port Sulphur Gas Distribution StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- East Potash FieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Sulphur'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 Port Sulphur.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Port Sulphur
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Sulphur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Sulphur
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Port Sulphur
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 Port Sulphur average
Your land is one point inside Port Sulphur
Everything above resolves to Port Sulphur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K acres. 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 Port Sulphur Average
Port Sulphur Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Port Sulphur
- ●One soil character for all of Port Sulphur
- ●Frost dates read at Port Sulphur's scale: Jan 14 to Dec 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Sulphur's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Sulphur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Sulphur, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Sulphur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Sulphur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Sulphur average
How we know this about Port Sulphur
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 Port Sulphur’s own record; 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 Port Sulphur
When does frost risk typically end in Port Sulphur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Sulphur typically lands around Jan 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Port Sulphur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Sulphur typically arrives around Dec 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 12, so the watching starts about Nov 26 — about 346 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Sulphur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Sulphur sees about 346 frost-free days — roughly Jan 14 through Dec 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 4 to Dec 12, about 311 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Sulphur?
The federal record around Port Sulphur shows 38 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (18), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 Port Sulphur?
From about Nov 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Sulphur's scale — its 9b band and its 346-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Sulphur'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 Port Sulphur’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Port Sulphur's own scale — its own ~346-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,464 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Sulphur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Sulphur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 14 and Dec 26 and the ~346-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Sulphur, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Sulphur's boundary and the 3,464 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~346-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Sulphur's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Sulphur's 3,464 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plaquemines County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Sulphur's 3,464 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Sulphur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,464 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 Port Sulphur-wide figureread your own land →