Apopka, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Apopka, 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 Apopka 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 Apopka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Apopka — the short answer
Apopka, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- 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
- City area
- 23K 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 9b is Apopka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apopka's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apopka
Each reading below is measured for Apopka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsApopka runs about 335 days between hard freezes (read from Orange County, the closest normal to Apopka) — 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
MeasuredApopka sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Apopka is in
Apopka sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Apopka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Apopka
Every plant below cleared Apopka's own zone 9b and its 335-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apopka?
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. 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 Apopka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apopka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APOPKA CITY-ERROL ESTATES LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ERROL COUNTRY CLUB-GOLF COURSE MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STORE ELEVEN #33Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LITTLE NURSERY ROBERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- APOPKA HIGH SCHOOL - BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL FIELDSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ALYSA CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TIRE KINGDOM #6118Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WINN-DIXIE #2246Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- LOWES OF APOPKA FL #2673Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #8926Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- TOWN STAR #77Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #29271Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apopka'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 Apopka.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apopka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apopka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apopka, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Apopka. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Apopka
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 Apopka average
Your land is one point inside Apopka
Everything above resolves to Apopka as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 23K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Orange County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Apopka Average
Apopka Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Apopka
- ●One soil character for all of Apopka
- ●Frost dates read at Apopka's scale: Jan 20 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apopka's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apopka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apopka, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apopka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apopka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apopka average
How we know this about Apopka
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 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 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 Apopka
When does frost risk typically end in Apopka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apopka 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 Apopka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apopka 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 Apopka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apopka 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 Apopka?
The federal record around Apopka is a meaningful one — 910 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (502), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Apopka?
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 Apopka's scale — its 9b band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apopka'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 Apopka’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Apopka's own scale — the 22,510 acres it covers and 910 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apopka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 910 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apopka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apopka's boundary and the 22,510 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~335-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Apopka's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Apopka 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 Apopka's 22,510 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 Apopka's 22,510 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apopka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,510 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Apopka-wide figureread your own land →
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