Deltona, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deltona, 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 Deltona 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 Deltona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deltona — the short answer
Deltona, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 24K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 24K 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 Volusia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Deltona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deltona's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deltona
Each reading below is measured for Deltona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDeltona runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Volusia County, the closest normal to Deltona) — 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
MeasuredDeltona sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Deltona is in
Deltona sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deltona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Volusia County.
What Grows in Deltona
Every plant below cleared Deltona's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deltona?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Deltona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deltona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K #7418Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DELTONA CITY-FIRE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BIG T TIRE & WHEEL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CIRCLE K #7473Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #10110Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #0990Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #0990Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CIRCLE K #7418Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #3577Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- VC/SOUTHWEST WTP-2PFAS · 1.4 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5854Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- LOWES OF DELTONA FL #2364Brownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deltona'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 Deltona.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deltona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deltona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deltona, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deltona — Superfund (8 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Deltona
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 Deltona average
Your land is one point inside Deltona
Everything above resolves to Deltona as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 24K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Volusia County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Deltona Average
Deltona Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Deltona
- ●One soil character for all of Deltona
- ●Frost dates read at Deltona's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deltona's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deltona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deltona, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deltona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deltona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deltona average
How we know this about Deltona
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 at Volusia 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 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 Deltona
When does frost risk typically end in Deltona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deltona typically lands around Jan 29, 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 Feb 19.
When is the first frost in Deltona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deltona typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deltona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deltona sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Dec 4, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deltona?
The federal record around Deltona is a meaningful one — 536 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (294), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Deltona?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deltona's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deltona'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 Deltona’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Deltona's own scale — the 23,887 acres it covers and 536 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deltona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 536 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deltona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deltona's boundary and the 23,887 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deltona's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Deltona has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Volusia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deltona's 23,887 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Volusia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Volusia 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 Volusia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deltona's 23,887 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deltona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,887 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Deltona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaDeltona sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides