Cedar Key, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cedar 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 Cedar 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 Cedar Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedar Key — the short answer
Cedar Key, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 310 days between hard freezes, across 657 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~310
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 657 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 Levy County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Cedar Key's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Key's 310-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Key
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Key itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCedar Key runs about 310 days between hard freezes (read from Levy County, the closest normal to Cedar Key) — 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
MeasuredCedar Key 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
What Grows in Cedar Key
Every plant below cleared Cedar Key's own zone 9b and its 310-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Key?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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 Cedar Key
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Key. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CEDAR KEY FISH & OYSTER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- INLAND JIFFY FOOD STORE #3246Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RICHARDS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTHERN BELL GLC 33438Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FORMER CEDAR KEY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CEDAR KEY GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- J'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 7.0 mi
- ANCHOR COVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- CROSSROADS COUNTRY STORE #2Underground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- DIVISION OF FORESTRY-CEDAR KEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
Measured from Cedar 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 Cedar Key.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Key
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.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar 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 Cedar Key average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Key
Everything above resolves to Cedar Key as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 657 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Levy 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 Cedar Key Average
Cedar Key Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Cedar Key
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Key
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Key's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Key's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Key
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Key, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Key averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Key average
How we know this about Cedar Key
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 Levy 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 Cedar Key
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Key?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Key typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Cedar Key?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Key typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 310 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Key?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Key sees about 310 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 26, about 275 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Key?
The federal record around Cedar Key is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedar Key?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Key's scale — its 9b band and its 310-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar 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 Cedar Key’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Key's own scale — the 657 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Key's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Key, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Key's boundary and the 657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~310-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cedar Key has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Levy County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Key's 657 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Levy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Levy 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 Levy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Key's 657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar 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 657 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Cedar Key-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaCedar Key sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides