Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Baton Rouge, LA?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/28, roughly 184 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/26, about 272 frost-free days later.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Baton Rouge, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 13 weeks of growing season left in Baton Rouge before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
Why 02/28 isn't a guarantee
02/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 01/31 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 03/21 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Baton Rouge compares
At roughly 272 frost-free days, Baton Rouge places 5,314 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within LA, it ranks 318 of 710.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Baton Rouge can differ from the 70809 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 9a and Baton Rouge's frost date answer different questions.