Ventress, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ventress, 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 Ventress 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 Ventress — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ventress — the short answer
Ventress, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Pointe Coupee Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Pointe Coupee Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- Pointe Coupee 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 Pointe Coupee Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ventress's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ventress's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ventress
Each reading below is measured for Ventress itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVentress runs about 305 days between hard freezes (read from Pointe Coupee Parish, the closest normal to Ventress) — 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
MeasuredVentress 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 Ventress is in
Ventress sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ventress's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pointe Coupee Parish.
What Grows in Ventress
Every plant below cleared Ventress's own zone 9a and its 305-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ventress?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 Ventress
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ventress. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Redevelopment - Former Cotton Seed MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Community Coffee Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SatterfieldsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Main Street Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PC-9Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Twin Gulf Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- New Roads City ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Tropical GardensUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lakeside GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TWIN GULF SVC CNTRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriffs OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Pointe Coupee Parish MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ventress'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 Ventress.
Total Sites
332
within ~10 miles of Ventress
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ventress
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ventress
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ventress, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ventress — Nitrate (130 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Ventress
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 Ventress average
Your land is one point inside Ventress
Everything above resolves to Ventress as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pointe Coupee 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 Ventress Average
Ventress Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ventress
- ●One soil character for all of Ventress
- ●Frost dates read at Ventress's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ventress's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ventress
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ventress, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ventress averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ventress — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ventress average
How we know this about Ventress
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 Pointe Coupee 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 Ventress
When does frost risk typically end in Ventress?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ventress typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Ventress?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ventress typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 305 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ventress?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ventress sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 23, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ventress?
The federal record around Ventress is a meaningful one — 332 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Ventress?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ventress's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ventress'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 Ventress’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ventress's own scale — the 1,298 acres it covers and 332 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ventress's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 332 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ventress, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ventress's boundary and the 1,298 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ventress's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ventress has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pointe Coupee Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ventress's 1,298 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pointe Coupee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pointe Coupee 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 Pointe Coupee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ventress's 1,298 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ventress you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,298 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Ventress-wide figureread your own land →
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