Cocoa, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cocoa, 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 Cocoa 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 Cocoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cocoa — the short answer
Cocoa, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 9K 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
- 9K 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 Cocoa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cocoa'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 Cocoa
Each reading below is measured for Cocoa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCocoa 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 Cocoa is in
Cocoa sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cocoa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brevard County.
What Grows in Cocoa
Every plant below cleared Cocoa's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Cocoa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cocoa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REVCO TRANSMISSIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BREVARD COMMUNITY COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- QUICK FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- GLOVER OIL #116Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BREVARD COUNTY CLEARLAKE MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MAULDIN JAMES USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BREVARD COUNTY COCOA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #4303Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- CLEARLAKE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NEALS TIRE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HARVEYS STORE #1714Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cocoa'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 Cocoa.
Total Sites
727
within ~10 miles of Cocoa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cocoa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cocoa
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 Cocoa
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 Cocoa average
Your land is one point inside Cocoa
Everything above resolves to Cocoa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Cocoa Average
Cocoa Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Cocoa
- ●One soil character for all of Cocoa
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cocoa's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cocoa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cocoa, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cocoa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cocoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cocoa average
How we know this about Cocoa
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 Cocoa
Is it too late to plant in Cocoa?
No — Cocoa 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 Cocoa?
It doesn't — Cocoa 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 Cocoa?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Cocoa 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 Cocoa?
The federal record around Cocoa is a meaningful one — 727 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (391), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cocoa's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Cocoa'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 Cocoa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cocoa's own scale — the 8,772 acres it covers and 727 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cocoa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Cocoa — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 727 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cocoa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cocoa's boundary and the 8,772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Cocoa's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cocoa's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cocoa's 8,772 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 Cocoa's 8,772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cocoa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cocoa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaCocoa sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides