Alafaya, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Alafaya, 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 Alafaya 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 Alafaya — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alafaya — the short answer
Alafaya, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 21
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~335
- Orange County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 20K 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 Orange County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Alafaya's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alafaya's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alafaya
Each reading below is measured for Alafaya itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlafaya runs about 335 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to Alafaya) — 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
MeasuredAlafaya sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Alafaya is in
Alafaya sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alafaya's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Alafaya
Every plant below cleared Alafaya's own zone 10a and its 335-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alafaya?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Alafaya
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alafaya. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #607Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SUNRISE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ORANGE CNTY UTIL-EASTERN WTR RECLAMATION FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DISCOVERY MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WATERFORD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WAL-MART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #3617Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- WINN-DIXIE STORE #2270Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #32157Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5214Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- WALGREEN COBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2708956Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FHMG EAST ORLANDO GENERAL SURGERYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alafaya'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 Alafaya.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alafaya
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alafaya
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Alafaya
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 Alafaya average
Your land is one point inside Alafaya
Everything above resolves to Alafaya as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 20K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orange County’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 Alafaya Average
Alafaya Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Alafaya
- ●One soil character for all of Alafaya
- ●Frost dates read at Alafaya's scale: Jan 20 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alafaya's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alafaya
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alafaya, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alafaya averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alafaya — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alafaya average
How we know this about Alafaya
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 Orange County’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 Alafaya
When does frost risk typically end in Alafaya?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alafaya typically lands around Jan 20, 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 Feb 10.
When is the first frost in Alafaya?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alafaya typically arrives around Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 7, so the watching starts about Nov 21 — about 335 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alafaya?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alafaya sees about 335 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Dec 7, about 300 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alafaya?
The federal record around Alafaya is a meaningful one — 1,076 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (515), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Alafaya?
From about Nov 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alafaya's scale — its 10a band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alafaya'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 Alafaya’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alafaya's own scale — the 19,607 acres it covers and 1,076 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alafaya's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,076 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alafaya, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alafaya's boundary and the 19,607 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~335-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alafaya's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alafaya has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Orange County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alafaya's 19,607 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange County
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alafaya's 19,607 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alafaya you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,607 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Alafaya-wide figureread your own land →
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