Rayville, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rayville, 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 Rayville 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 Rayville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rayville — the short answer
Rayville, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Richland Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Richland Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Richland 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 Richland Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Rayville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rayville's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rayville
Each reading below is measured for Rayville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRayville runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Richland Parish, the closest normal to Rayville) — 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
MeasuredRayville 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 Rayville is in
Rayville sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rayville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richland Parish.
What Grows in Rayville
Every plant below cleared Rayville's own zone 9a and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rayville?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Rayville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rayville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARYS TIRE & ALIGNMENTBrownfields · 300 ft
- Byrds GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Garys Tire & AlignmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- W TYLER HEATH FAMILY DENTISTRYBrownfields · 450 ft
- Ricky Morris (Sacksonia)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Ricky Morris (C Morris Barn)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Coast # 9022Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- AUTOZONE #3054Brownfields · 1600 ft
- RANDYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Delta Fuel Rayville BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #5121Brownfields · 1800 ft
- Rayville Compress Warehouse IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rayville'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 Rayville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rayville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rayville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rayville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Rayville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Rayville
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 Rayville average
Your land is one point inside Rayville
Everything above resolves to Rayville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Richland 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 Rayville Average
Rayville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Rayville
- ●One soil character for all of Rayville
- ●Frost dates read at Rayville's scale: Feb 14 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rayville's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rayville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rayville, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rayville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rayville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rayville average
How we know this about Rayville
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 Richland 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 Rayville
When does frost risk typically end in Rayville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rayville typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 7.
When is the first frost in Rayville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rayville typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rayville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rayville sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 16, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rayville?
The federal record around Rayville shows 155 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), the nearest Brownfields 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 Rayville?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rayville's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rayville'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 Rayville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rayville's own scale — the 1,478 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rayville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rayville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rayville's boundary and the 1,478 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rayville's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rayville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Richland Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rayville's 1,478 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richland 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 Richland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rayville's 1,478 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rayville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,478 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Rayville-wide figureread your own land →
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