Arcadia, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arcadia, 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 Arcadia 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 Arcadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arcadia — the short answer
Arcadia, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 330 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- DeSoto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- DeSoto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~330
- DeSoto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 DeSoto County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Arcadia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arcadia's 330-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arcadia
Each reading below is measured for Arcadia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsArcadia runs about 330 days between hard freezes (read from DeSoto County, the closest normal to Arcadia) — 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
MeasuredArcadia 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 Arcadia is in
Arcadia sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arcadia's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeSoto County.
What Grows in Arcadia
Every plant below cleared Arcadia's own zone 9b and its 330-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arcadia?
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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — 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 Arcadia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arcadia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FPL ARCADIA SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 450 ft
- CIRCLE K #0025Brownfields · 700 ft
- FL POWER & LIGHT CO-ARCADIA SRVC CTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SHELL-HIGHWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BP-ARCADIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DESOTO FORD-MERCURYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DESOTO CNTY SHERIFFS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PURSELLS WRECKER & ROAD SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ODORLESS DRY CLEANERS & LAUNDRYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ARCADIA FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CIRCLE K #0025Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PURSELL'S TIRE & SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arcadia'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 Arcadia.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arcadia, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Arcadia. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Arcadia
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 Arcadia average
Your land is one point inside Arcadia
Everything above resolves to Arcadia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from DeSoto 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 Arcadia Average
Arcadia Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Arcadia
- ●One soil character for all of Arcadia
- ●Frost dates read at Arcadia's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arcadia's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arcadia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arcadia, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arcadia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arcadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arcadia average
How we know this about Arcadia
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 DeSoto 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 Arcadia
When does frost risk typically end in Arcadia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Arcadia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 330 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arcadia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arcadia sees about 330 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Dec 6, about 295 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arcadia?
The federal record around Arcadia is a meaningful one — 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Brownfields 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 Arcadia?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arcadia's scale — its 9b band and its 330-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arcadia'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 Arcadia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Arcadia's own scale — the 2,849 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arcadia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arcadia, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arcadia's boundary and the 2,849 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~330-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arcadia's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Arcadia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom DeSoto County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arcadia's 2,849 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeSoto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeSoto 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 DeSoto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arcadia's 2,849 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arcadia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,849 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Arcadia-wide figureread your own land →