Louisiana, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Louisiana, 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 Louisiana 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 Louisiana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Louisiana — the short answer
Louisiana, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 6b is Louisiana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Louisiana's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Louisiana
Each reading below is measured for Louisiana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLouisiana runs about 226 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLouisiana sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Louisiana is in
Louisiana sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Louisiana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Louisiana
Every plant below cleared Louisiana's own zone 6b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Louisiana?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Louisiana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Louisiana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARKVIEW GROCERY & PACKAGE STORE INUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- PIKE COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LOUISIANA MFG COToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- LOUISIANA PRIMARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- VALLEY STEEL PRODUCTS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CITY OF LOUISIANAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LOUISIANA STEEL INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- LOUISIANA STEEL INC.Brownfields · 2300 ft
- LOUISIANA WORKS HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LOUISIANA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ABELS QUIK SHOP #7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LOUISIANA MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Louisiana'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 Louisiana.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Louisiana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Louisiana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Louisiana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Louisiana, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Louisiana. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Louisiana
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 Louisiana average
Your land is one point inside Louisiana
Everything above resolves to Louisiana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Louisiana Average
Louisiana Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Louisiana
- ●One soil character for all of Louisiana
- ●Frost dates read at Louisiana's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Louisiana's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Louisiana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Louisiana, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Louisiana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Louisiana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Louisiana average
How we know this about Louisiana
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Louisiana’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Louisiana
When does frost risk typically end in Louisiana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Louisiana typically lands around Mar 28, 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 Apr 18.
When is the first frost in Louisiana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Louisiana typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Louisiana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Louisiana sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 26, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Louisiana?
The federal record around Louisiana is a meaningful one — 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Louisiana?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Louisiana's scale — its 6b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Louisiana'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 Louisiana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Louisiana's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,006 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Louisiana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Louisiana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 9 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Louisiana, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Louisiana's boundary and the 2,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Louisiana's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Louisiana's 2,006 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Louisiana's 2,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Louisiana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,006 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 Louisiana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriLouisiana sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides