Big Coppitt Key, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Big Coppitt Key, 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 Big Coppitt Key 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 Big Coppitt Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Big Coppitt Key — the short answer
Big Coppitt Key, Florida: USDA zone 11b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 739 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 11b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 739 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 11b is Big Coppitt Key's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Coppitt Key's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Coppitt Key
Each reading below is measured for Big Coppitt Key itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBig Coppitt Key sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b.
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 Big Coppitt Key is in
Big Coppitt Key sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Big Coppitt Key's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Big Coppitt Key
Every plant below cleared Big Coppitt Key's own zone 11b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Big Coppitt Key
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Coppitt Key. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DION C STORES LLC #204Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MONROE CNTY-FIRE FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CIRCLE K #1707Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- KEY WEST AUTO WEBBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- KEY WEST ELECTRONICSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ROCKLAND COMMERCIAL CENTERBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- JESTER MARC & RUTHELEN C ZEVNIK-JESTER (H/W)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- TOPPINO INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CHARLEY TOPPINO & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - SKEYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- WASTE MANAGEMENT INC OF FLORIDABrownfields · 1.9 mi
- ALEX'S AUTO WRECKING & PARTS INC.Brownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Coppitt Key'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 Big Coppitt Key.
Total Sites
243
within ~10 miles of Big Coppitt Key
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Coppitt Key
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Coppitt Key
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Coppitt Key, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Big Coppitt Key — Nitrate (64 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Big Coppitt Key
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 Big Coppitt Key average
Your land is one point inside Big Coppitt Key
Everything above resolves to Big Coppitt Key as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 739 acres. 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 Big Coppitt Key Average
Big Coppitt Key Average
- ●USDA Zones 11b, averaged across Big Coppitt Key
- ●One soil character for all of Big Coppitt Key
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Coppitt Key's 11b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Coppitt Key
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Coppitt Key, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Coppitt Key averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Coppitt Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Coppitt Key average
How we know this about Big Coppitt Key
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Big Coppitt Key
Is it too late to plant in Big Coppitt Key?
No — Big Coppitt Key has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Big Coppitt Key?
It doesn't — Big Coppitt Key records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Big Coppitt Key?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Big Coppitt Key contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Coppitt Key?
The federal record around Big Coppitt Key is a meaningful one — 243 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Big Coppitt Key's scale — its 11b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Big Coppitt Key'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 Big Coppitt Key’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Coppitt Key's own scale — the 739 acres it covers and 243 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Coppitt Key's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Big Coppitt Key — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 243 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Coppitt Key, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Coppitt Key's boundary and the 739 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Big Coppitt Key's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Coppitt Key's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Coppitt Key's 739 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Coppitt Key's 739 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Coppitt Key you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 739 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Big Coppitt Key-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Growing region
Nearby growing guides