Cinco Bayou, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, 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 Cinco Bayou, 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 Cinco Bayou 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 Cinco Bayou — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cinco Bayou — the short answer
Cinco Bayou, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Okaloosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Okaloosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Okaloosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Okaloosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cinco Bayou's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cinco Bayou's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cinco Bayou
Each reading below is measured for Cinco Bayou itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCinco Bayou runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Okaloosa County, the closest normal to Cinco Bayou) — 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
MeasuredCinco Bayou sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Cinco Bayou is in
Cinco Bayou sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cinco Bayou's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Okaloosa County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cinco Bayou
Every plant below cleared Cinco Bayou's own zone 9a and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cinco Bayou?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Cinco Bayou
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cinco Bayou. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FL PEST CONTROL & CHEMICAL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- KAR AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- KMART #3223Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- K MART #3223Brownfields · 400 ft
- SERIGRAPHIABrownfields · 400 ft
- SUNSHINE FOOD MART #433Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BP-STONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SUNSHINE FOOD MART #434Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- TRIBS REPAIR SERVICEBrownfields · 600 ft
- DUCKS PAINT & BODY SHOPPEBrownfields · 700 ft
- WICKES-HOMECRAFTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BROXSON MOVING & STORAGE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cinco Bayou'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 Cinco Bayou.
Total Sites
502
within ~10 miles of Cinco Bayou
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cinco Bayou
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cinco Bayou
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cinco Bayou, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cinco Bayou — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Cinco Bayou
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 Cinco Bayou average
Your land is one point inside Cinco Bayou
Everything above resolves to Cinco Bayou as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 111 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Okaloosa County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Cinco Bayou Average
Cinco Bayou Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cinco Bayou
- ●One soil character for all of Cinco Bayou
- ●Frost dates read at Cinco Bayou's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cinco Bayou's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cinco Bayou
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cinco Bayou, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cinco Bayou averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cinco Bayou — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cinco Bayou average
How we know this about Cinco Bayou
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 at Okaloosa 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 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 Cinco Bayou
When does frost risk typically end in Cinco Bayou?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cinco Bayou typically lands around Feb 16, 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 Mar 9.
When is the first frost in Cinco Bayou?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cinco Bayou typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cinco Bayou?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cinco Bayou sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cinco Bayou?
The federal record around Cinco Bayou is a meaningful one — 502 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (239), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cinco Bayou?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cinco Bayou's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cinco Bayou'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 Cinco Bayou’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cinco Bayou's own scale — the 111 acres it covers and 502 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cinco Bayou's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 502 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cinco Bayou, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cinco Bayou's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cinco Bayou sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cinco Bayou has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Okaloosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cinco Bayou's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Okaloosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cinco Bayou's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cinco Bayou you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 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 Cinco Bayou-wide figureread your own land →