Charlotte County, in Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Charlotte County lies within the Southwest Florida (Naples–Fort Myers–Sarasota) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring
Charlotte County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Charlotte County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Charlotte County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Charlotte County — the short answer
Charlotte County, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 436K acres.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, county record
- County area
- 436K 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 Charlotte County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlotte County's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Charlotte County
Across a year, Charlotte County accumulates about 8,882 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,497 more than the middle Florida county — ahead of 60 of Florida’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 0 hours below 45°F, 36 fewer than the Florida middle of 36. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Charlotte County
Across Charlotte County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Pineda, Wabasso, and Oldsmar are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.1, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Hydric soils
34%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Charlotte County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Charlotte County as poorly drained — but another 23% drains differently: 17% very poorly drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Pineda is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Wabasso (14%) and Oldsmar (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Charlotte County
Each reading below is measured for Charlotte County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Charlotte County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Charlotte County runs about pH 5.3–6.1, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCharlotte County records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 30-year station record — 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
MeasuredCharlotte County 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 Charlotte County is in
Charlotte County sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Charlotte County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Charlotte County's own USDA zone 10a and its own 365-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile.
Documented around Charlotte County
- monarch butterfly15 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Charlotte County
USGS estimates 15,115 lb of Glyphosate on Charlotte County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (2,903 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (2,624 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Charlotte County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Charlotte County — 579 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Charlotte County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Charlotte County
Closest first, across Charlotte County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZPGOBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SOUTHEASTERN FREIGHT LINESBrownfields · 2300 ft
- BROTHERS MARINEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SUPERTRAK INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ALLEGIANT AIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION CHARLOTTE CTY AIRPORTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SALT SHAKER BOATS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RALLY #302Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUNSHINE FOOD MART#365Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WAWA 5343Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #094Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charlotte County'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 Charlotte County.
Total Sites
579
across Charlotte County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Charlotte County
Severity Distribution
across Charlotte County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlotte County, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites across Charlotte County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Charlotte County
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 Charlotte County average
Your land is one point inside Charlotte County
Everything above resolves to Charlotte County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 436K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Charlotte County Average
Charlotte County Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Charlotte County
- ●One soil character for all of Charlotte County
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlotte County's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Charlotte County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlotte County, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlotte County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlotte County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlotte County average
How we know this about Charlotte County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Charlotte County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Charlotte County
Is it too late to plant in Charlotte County?
No — Charlotte County 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 Charlotte County?
It doesn't — Charlotte County 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 Charlotte County?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Charlotte County 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 Charlotte County?
The federal record around Charlotte County is a meaningful one — 579 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (237), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Charlotte County's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Charlotte County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Florida's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Charlotte County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Charlotte County's own scale — a 30-year record with no killing freeze in it, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 579 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlotte County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in Charlotte County's own 30-year station record — a year-round growing season, measured here rather than inheritedNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Charlotte CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 579 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Charlotte County's boundary and the 435,935 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Charlotte County sitting wholly inside the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Charlotte County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Charlotte County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Charlotte County — the ~365 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charlotte County's 435,935 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 579 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Charlotte Countyread your own land →