Wisner, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Wisner, 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 Wisner 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 Wisner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wisner — the short answer
Wisner, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 509 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Franklin Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Franklin Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Franklin Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 509 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 Franklin Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Wisner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wisner's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wisner
Each reading below is measured for Wisner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWisner runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Franklin Parish, the closest normal to Wisner) — 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
MeasuredWisner 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 Wisner is in
Wisner sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wisner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin Parish.
What Grows in Wisner
Every plant below cleared Wisner's own zone 8b and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wisner?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (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. 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 Wisner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wisner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Beach's Feed & SeedUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Ezell One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Fr-4Nitrate · 550 ft
- Fr-56Nitrate · 550 ft
- T&L IrrigationUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Roberts Gulf ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Joel Ezell's Empty LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- T B Gilbert BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WISNER RURAL HEALTH CLINICBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Central LA Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Fr-318Nitrate · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wisner'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 Wisner.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wisner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wisner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wisner, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Wisner. 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 Wisner
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 Wisner average
Your land is one point inside Wisner
Everything above resolves to Wisner as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 509 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Franklin 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 Wisner Average
Wisner Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wisner
- ●One soil character for all of Wisner
- ●Frost dates read at Wisner's scale: Feb 16 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wisner's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wisner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wisner, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wisner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wisner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wisner average
How we know this about Wisner
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 Franklin 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 Wisner
When does frost risk typically end in Wisner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wisner typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Wisner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wisner 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 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wisner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wisner sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 14, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wisner?
The federal record around Wisner shows 128 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (78), 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 Wisner?
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 Wisner's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wisner'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 Wisner’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Wisner's own scale — the 509 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wisner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wisner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wisner's boundary and the 509 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wisner's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wisner has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Franklin Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wisner's 509 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wisner's 509 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wisner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 509 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 Wisner-wide figureread your own land →
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