Cape Canaveral, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cape Canaveral, 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 Cape Canaveral 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 Cape Canaveral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cape Canaveral — the short answer
Cape Canaveral, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 1K 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 10a is Cape Canaveral's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape Canaveral'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 Cape Canaveral
Each reading below is measured for Cape Canaveral itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCape Canaveral 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 Cape Canaveral is in
Cape Canaveral sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape Canaveral's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brevard County.
What Grows in Cape Canaveral
Every plant below cleared Cape Canaveral's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Cape Canaveral
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape Canaveral. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #22407Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SPACE FLORIDABrownfields · 600 ft
- SCHANVELS ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SPACE COAST INTEGRATION AND TEST (SCIT)Brownfields · 1000 ft
- SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PACER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SUNSHINE #30061Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SUNRISE FOOD MART #73Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CAPEVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SPACEPORT AMOCO #747Brownfields · 1700 ft
- SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES DBA STARSHIP TILE FACILITYBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape Canaveral'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 Cape Canaveral.
Total Sites
598
within ~10 miles of Cape Canaveral
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape Canaveral
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape Canaveral
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Cape Canaveral
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 Cape Canaveral average
Your land is one point inside Cape Canaveral
Everything above resolves to Cape Canaveral as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 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 Cape Canaveral Average
Cape Canaveral Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Cape Canaveral
- ●One soil character for all of Cape Canaveral
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape Canaveral's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape Canaveral
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape Canaveral, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape Canaveral averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape Canaveral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape Canaveral average
How we know this about Cape Canaveral
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, 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 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 Cape Canaveral
Is it too late to plant in Cape Canaveral?
No — Cape Canaveral 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 Cape Canaveral?
It doesn't — Cape Canaveral 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 Cape Canaveral?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Cape Canaveral 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 Cape Canaveral?
The federal record around Cape Canaveral is a meaningful one — 598 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (319), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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.
Everything above is measured at Cape Canaveral's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Cape Canaveral'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 Cape Canaveral’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cape Canaveral's own scale — the 1,422 acres it covers and 598 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape Canaveral's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Cape Canaveral — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 598 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape Canaveral, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape Canaveral's boundary and the 1,422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Cape Canaveral's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cape Canaveral's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cape Canaveral's 1,422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brevard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brevard 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 Brevard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cape Canaveral's 1,422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape Canaveral you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cape Canaveral-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaCape Canaveral sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides