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Place guide

Planting zones in New Orleans-Metairie, LA

This metro spans USDA zones 9a to 10a, so there is no single zone for New Orleans-Metairie, LA and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 82% of its ZIP codes are zone 9b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 9a–10a 3 zones across 71 ZIP codes
ZIP codes 71 71 have a NOAA station within range
Weather stations 15 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 2,359 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes New Orleans-Metairie, LA as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

Works for all 40,502 US ZIP codes. Freeze dates need a NOAA station within 100 km; where there is none, the page says so rather than estimating one.

What you can sow in New Orleans-Metairie, LA now

5 of 32 crops that every one of the 15 NOAA stations serving this metro area agrees still has time to mature — with a week in hand, so this holds until the page is next rebuilt.

The freeze dates here cross the new year, so no single range describes them and none is quoted. Each ZIP code's own station is cited in the lookup above.

A further 21 crops depend on where in New Orleans-Metairie, LA you are — its stations disagree about them. The ZIP lookup above settles it for one address.

The growing season at one or more of this metro area's stations crosses 1 January, so a one-year bar would have to start the season after it ended. No chart is drawn rather than a misleading one.

Which zone you are in depends where you are

New Orleans-Metairie, LA covers 3 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the metro one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — which is fine for the 82% in zone 9b and wrong for the other 18%. Here is the actual split.

Zone ZIP codes Share  
9b 58 82%
9a 8 11%
10a 5 7%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the metro's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

No freeze range is shown for New Orleans-Metairie, LA, because the freeze window here crosses New Year, so an earliest-to-latest range would be arithmetic on dates that do not sit in order. The tools below still answer for individual ZIP codes here, and will say what applies.

Your growing season

NOAA publishes a growing-season length for each station, and across the 15 stations serving New Orleans-Metairie, LA it runs 281–357 days . That figure is published, not computed from the two freeze dates — subtracting one from the other gives the wrong answer wherever a season crosses New Year. Mean summer high (June–August) runs 88–94 °F , at or above the 90 °F point where cool-season crops bolt and tomato and pepper pollen fails — so midsummer sowings of lettuce and its relatives are worth holding here. Summer rain over the same months runs 18.2–24.3" across those 14 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. At the middle station that is covered, so watering in New Orleans-Metairie, LA is for the gaps between storms rather than the whole season. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 89 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

What survives the winter changes across New Orleans-Metairie, LA

Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 46 come through the winter in zone 9a and only 25 in zone 10a. That is a different garden at each end of the same metro.

Zone ZIPs Survive Fail for being too warm
9a 8 46 of 74 25
9b 58 40 of 74 32
10a 5 25 of 74 49

The last column is the counterintuitive one, and it is why the totals do not simply rise as the winters get milder. Most temperate fruit needs a documented number of hours below about 45 °F to break dormancy and set a crop, so an apple fails in a winter that is too warm; currants and rhubarb cook in the summer heat that comes with it. See the full list with reasons.

At least one station here freezes across the new year, which puts the two ends of a spread on opposite sides of the calendar. Drawing it would produce a bar spanning almost the whole year and meaning nothing, so none is drawn.

The 15 stations behind these numbers

The 15 NOAA stations serving New Orleans-Metairie, LA A relative sketch of where the stations sit, about 103 kilometres north to south. Each is named with its NOAA identifier in the station list on this page, which carries the same information as text. BOOTHVILLE ASOS, LA US (USW00012884)BURAS, LA US (USC00161292)CHALMETTE, LA US (USC00166130)DONALDSONVILLE 4 SW, LA US (USC00162534)GALLIANO, LA US (USC00163433)LSU CITRUS RSCH STN, LA US (USC00165624)MARRERO 9 SSW, LA US (USC00165926)NEW ORLEANS ALVIN CALLENDER FL, LA US (USW00012958)NEW ORLEANS AUDUBON, LA US (USW00012930)NEW ORLEANS INTL AP, LA US (USW00012916)NEW ORLEANS LAKEFRONT AP, LA US (USW00053917)RESERVE, LA US (USC00167767)SLIDELL, LA US (USC00168539)ST BERNARD, LA US (USC00168108)TERRYTOWN 3S, LA US (USC00168941) ~103 km north to south

All 15 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 103 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole metro area.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

Every figure above comes from these, and each is named so you can check it. Which station serves a given ZIP code, and how far away it is, varies across the metro — the table below gives it per ZIP code rather than this page averaging it.

Station NOAA ID Last spring freeze First fall freeze Season
Boothville Asos, LA USW00012884 January 23 January 9 357 days
Buras, LA USC00161292 January 25 January 4 346 days
Chalmette, LA USC00166130 February 10 December 17 309 days
Donaldsonville 4 SW, LA USC00162534 February 21 December 5 291 days
Galliano, LA USC00163433 February 8 December 19 311 days
Lsu Citrus Rsch Stn, LA USC00165624 February 3 December 28 327 days
Marrero 9 Ssw, LA USC00165926 February 10 December 12 306 days
New Orleans Alvin Callender Fl, LA USW00012958 February 18 December 6 295 days
New Orleans Audubon, LA USW00012930 January 24 January 2 341 days
New Orleans INTL AP, LA USW00012916 January 30 December 31 333 days
New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA USW00053917 January 22 January 5 348 days
Reserve, LA USC00167767 February 9 December 14 308 days
Slidell, LA USC00168539 February 24 December 1 281 days
St Bernard, LA USC00168108 February 4 December 15 312 days
Terrytown 3S, LA USC00168941 February 1 December 31 330 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Every ZIP code in New Orleans-Metairie, LA

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per metro area, so this is the exact answer rather than the metro area's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code USDA zone Nearest NOAA station Distance
70001 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 8.0 km
70002 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 8.7 km
70003 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 4.1 km
70005 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 9.2 km
70006 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 6.2 km
70030 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 26.6 km
70031 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 7.0 km
70032 9b Chalmette, LA 1.0 km
70036 9b Marrero 9 Ssw, LA 11.3 km
70037 9b Marrero 9 Ssw, LA 10.9 km
70038 10a Boothville Asos, LA 0.7 km
70039 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 17.7 km
70040 9b New Orleans Alvin Callender Fl, LA 12.4 km
70041 10a Buras, LA 4.8 km
70043 9b Chalmette, LA 2.2 km
70047 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 10.2 km
70049 9b Reserve, LA 3.4 km
70050 10a Buras, LA 9.0 km
70051 9a Reserve, LA 6.3 km
70052 9a Reserve, LA 10.4 km
70053 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 1.9 km
70056 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 2.6 km
70057 9b Reserve, LA 15.3 km
70058 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 5.4 km
70062 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 0.7 km
70065 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 3.7 km
70067 9b Marrero 9 Ssw, LA 8.5 km
70068 9b Reserve, LA 17.7 km
70070 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 19.1 km
70071 9a Reserve, LA 11.9 km
70072 9b Marrero 9 Ssw, LA 3.4 km
70075 9b Chalmette, LA 6.8 km
70076 9a Reserve, LA 6.7 km
70079 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 15.6 km
70080 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 21.3 km
70082 9b Lsu Citrus Rsch Stn, LA 6.8 km
70083 9b Lsu Citrus Rsch Stn, LA 8.0 km
70084 9b Reserve, LA 1.9 km
70085 9b St Bernard, LA 9.1 km
70086 9a Donaldsonville 4 SW, LA 16.1 km
70087 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 6.7 km
70090 9b Reserve, LA 15.1 km
70091 10a Boothville Asos, LA 26.1 km
70092 9b St Bernard, LA 7.0 km
70094 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 7.5 km
70112 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 6.6 km
70113 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 5.3 km
70114 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 3.1 km
70115 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 2.8 km
70116 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 7.0 km
70117 9b Chalmette, LA 4.8 km
70118 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 3.1 km
70119 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 7.7 km
70121 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 5.7 km
70122 9b New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA 5.7 km
70123 9b New Orleans INTL AP, LA 6.5 km
70124 9b New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA 8.6 km
70125 9b New Orleans Audubon, LA 4.7 km
70126 9b New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA 3.5 km
70127 9b New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA 5.8 km
70128 9b New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA 7.5 km
70129 9b Slidell, LA 20.9 km
70130 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 4.5 km
70131 9b Chalmette, LA 5.4 km
70139 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 5.7 km
70148 9b New Orleans Lakefront AP, LA 4.5 km
70163 9b Terrytown 3S, LA 6.0 km
70358 10a Galliano, LA 38.7 km
70723 9a Donaldsonville 4 SW, LA 18.1 km
70743 9a Reserve, LA 18.6 km
70763 9a Reserve, LA 15.1 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.

Other places to compare

These metros span exactly the same zones — 9a–10a — so the same plants are in and out of range across them. The freeze dates and the spring calendar are their own.

Gardening in Louisiana — zones 8b– 10a covers the whole state: how its 534 ZIP codes divide between 4 hardiness zones, and the freeze dates across every NOAA station in it.

Other metro areas in LA:

All 388 metro areas, by state

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station whose normals cover a ZIP code in this metro. Nothing here is estimated, and no station stands in for another.

This page names no single station on purpose. Picking one to represent a metro sounds reasonable and is not: the station serving the most ZIP codes is an artifact of where ZIP centroids happen to fall, and it selects a lock on the Monongahela for Pittsburgh and a far southern suburb for Chicago. A range across every station is true; a single cited date for a whole metro is not.

All metro areas