Okaloosa County, in Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Okaloosa County lies within the Florida Panhandle and the Gulf Coast — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Okaloosa County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Okaloosa County — the short answer
Okaloosa County, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 595K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 595K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Okaloosa County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Okaloosa County's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Okaloosa County
Across a year, Okaloosa County accumulates about 6,269 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,116 fewer than the middle Florida county — ahead of 3 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 607 hours below 45°F, 571 more 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 Okaloosa County
Across Okaloosa County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Lakeland, Troup, and Dothan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.9–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Okaloosa County
The USDA soil survey maps 39% of Okaloosa County as excessively drained — but another 53% drains differently: 21% well drained, 8% somewhat poorly drained.
Lakeland is the most extensive named soil at 39% of mapped acres, then Troup (11%) and Dothan (7%).
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 Okaloosa County
Each reading below is measured for Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County are excessively drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Okaloosa County runs about pH 4.9–5.3, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 16% of Okaloosa County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredOkaloosa County runs about 289 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Okaloosa County is in
Okaloosa County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (82%) and Southern Coastal Plain (18%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Okaloosa County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Okaloosa County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 289-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.
Is it too late to plant in Okaloosa County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Okaloosa County
- monarch butterfly112 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Okaloosa County
USGS estimates 8,141 lb of Glyphosate on Okaloosa County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (2,290 lb) and Dicrotophos (1,822 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 Okaloosa County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Okaloosa County — 824 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Superfund sites (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 Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County
Closest first, across Okaloosa County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EGLIN 29 FLD 5-2Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- B-1433 OKLOOSA TOW 2 INNitrate · 3.3 mi
- B-1433 OKALOOSA TOW 4 INNitrate · 3.3 mi
- B-1544 EGLIN AFB 6 IN.Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- B-1547 EGLIN AFBNitrate · 4.6 mi
- B-1544 EGLIN AFB 4 IN.Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- B-4964 EGLIN AFBNitrate · 5.7 mi
- ZEB WATTS SEPTIC & UNDERGROUND INCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- CRESTVIEW CHRYSLER - DODGEBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- GERBER COLLISION & GLASS - CRESTVIEWBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- FL DEPT OF CORRECTIONS-OKALOOSA CIUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- B-4060 EGLIN PISTOL RANNitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County.
Total Sites
824
across Okaloosa County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Okaloosa County
Severity Distribution
across Okaloosa County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Okaloosa County, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 14 sites across Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County average
Your land is one point inside Okaloosa County
Everything above resolves to Okaloosa County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 595K 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 Okaloosa County Average
Okaloosa County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Okaloosa County
- ●One soil character for all of Okaloosa County
- ●Frost dates read at Okaloosa County's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Okaloosa County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Okaloosa County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Okaloosa County, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Okaloosa County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Okaloosa County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Okaloosa County average
How we know this about Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Okaloosa County
When does frost risk typically end in Okaloosa County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Okaloosa County 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.
How long is the growing season in Okaloosa County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Okaloosa County 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 Okaloosa County?
The federal record around Okaloosa County is a meaningful one — 824 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (419), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.0 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 Okaloosa County's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Okaloosa County's own scale — its own ~289-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 824 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Okaloosa County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Okaloosa County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~289-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Okaloosa CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 824 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 3.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Okaloosa County's boundary and the 595,092 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Okaloosa County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Okaloosa County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County — the ~289 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 Okaloosa County's 595,092 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 824 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 Okaloosa Countyread your own land →