Cudjoe Key, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cudjoe 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 Cudjoe 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 Cudjoe Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cudjoe Key — the short answer
Cudjoe Key, Florida: USDA zone 11b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 11b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 3K 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 11b is Cudjoe Key's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cudjoe Key'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 Cudjoe Key
Each reading below is measured for Cudjoe Key itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCudjoe Key sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b.
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 Cudjoe Key is in
Cudjoe Key sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Cudjoe Key's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Cudjoe Key
Every plant below cleared Cudjoe Key's own zone 11b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Cudjoe Key
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cudjoe Key. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONROE COUNTY CUDJOE KEY LANDFILLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- FL KEYS BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WYNDHAM REACH RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KOHLER CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CUDJOE GARDENS MARINA & DIVE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ITT TARS CUDJOE KEYBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SUGARLOAF KEY KOAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- KEY WEST CITY-GARAGE #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PORTSIDE MARINEBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- GARLAND WEBSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MONROE CNTY SCHOOL BD-SUGARLOAFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- VENTURE OUT AT CUDJOE CAY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cudjoe 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 Cudjoe Key.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cudjoe Key
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cudjoe Key
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cudjoe Key, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Cudjoe Key. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cudjoe 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 Cudjoe Key average
Your land is one point inside Cudjoe Key
Everything above resolves to Cudjoe Key as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 Cudjoe Key Average
Cudjoe Key Average
- ●USDA Zones 11b, averaged across Cudjoe Key
- ●One soil character for all of Cudjoe Key
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cudjoe Key's 11b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cudjoe Key
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cudjoe Key, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cudjoe Key averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cudjoe Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cudjoe Key average
How we know this about Cudjoe Key
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, 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 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 Cudjoe Key
Is it too late to plant in Cudjoe Key?
No — Cudjoe Key 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 Cudjoe Key?
It doesn't — Cudjoe Key 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 Cudjoe Key?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Cudjoe Key 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 Cudjoe Key?
The federal record around Cudjoe Key shows 79 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Cudjoe Key's scale — its 11b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Cudjoe 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 Cudjoe Key’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cudjoe Key's own scale — the 3,311 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cudjoe Key's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Cudjoe Key — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cudjoe Key, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cudjoe Key's boundary and the 3,311 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Cudjoe Key's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cudjoe Key's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cudjoe Key's 3,311 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cudjoe Key's 3,311 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cudjoe 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 3,311 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Cudjoe Key-wide figureread your own land →
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