Vidalia, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vidalia, 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 Vidalia 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 Vidalia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vidalia — the short answer
Vidalia, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Concordia Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Vidalia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vidalia's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vidalia
Each reading below is measured for Vidalia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVidalia runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Concordia Parish, the closest normal to Vidalia) — 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
MeasuredVidalia 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 Vidalia is in
Vidalia sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vidalia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Concordia Parish.
What Grows in Vidalia
Every plant below cleared Vidalia's own zone 8b and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vidalia?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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 Vidalia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vidalia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CSP-D LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Papa T'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Vidalia TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Reliable Production Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Super Station #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VIDALIA TIRE SERVICEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Jerry's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Vidalia City of - Vidalia Water PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- B-Kwik #7Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 3191Brownfields · 2400 ft
- PETSENSE STORE #7149Brownfields · 2400 ft
- CITY OF VIDALIA MAINTENANCE SHOPBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vidalia'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 Vidalia.
Total Sites
457
within ~10 miles of Vidalia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vidalia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vidalia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Vidalia
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 Vidalia average
Your land is one point inside Vidalia
Everything above resolves to Vidalia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Concordia 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 Vidalia Average
Vidalia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Vidalia
- ●One soil character for all of Vidalia
- ●Frost dates read at Vidalia's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vidalia's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vidalia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vidalia, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vidalia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vidalia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vidalia average
How we know this about Vidalia
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 Concordia 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 Vidalia
When does frost risk typically end in Vidalia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vidalia typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Vidalia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vidalia typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vidalia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vidalia sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 21, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vidalia?
The federal record around Vidalia is a meaningful one — 457 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (243), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Vidalia?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vidalia's scale — its 8b band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vidalia'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 Vidalia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Vidalia's own scale — the 1,660 acres it covers and 457 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vidalia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 457 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vidalia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vidalia's boundary and the 1,660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vidalia's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Vidalia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Concordia Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vidalia's 1,660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Concordia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Concordia 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 Concordia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vidalia's 1,660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vidalia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vidalia-wide figureread your own land →
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