Ferry Pass, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Even in Ferry Pass, 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 Ferry Pass 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 Ferry Pass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ferry Pass — the short answer
Ferry Pass, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Escambia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ferry Pass's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferry Pass's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferry Pass
Each reading below is measured for Ferry Pass itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFerry Pass runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Escambia County, the closest normal to Ferry Pass) — 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
MeasuredFerry Pass sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Ferry Pass is in
Ferry Pass sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ferry Pass's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Escambia County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ferry Pass
Every plant below cleared Ferry Pass's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ferry Pass?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Ferry Pass
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Ferry Pass, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ferry Pass
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferry Pass. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COX COMMUNICATIONS - PENSACOLA HQ & AFCBrownfields · 800 ft
- EUROFINS ENVIRONMENT TESTING SOUTHEAST LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF THE GULF COASTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- GULF COAST BUILDING PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PEGASUS LABORATORIESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JUPITER COMPOSITES, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- BUILDING MATERIALS OUTLETBrownfields · 2100 ft
- LABEL TECHNIQUE SOUTHEAST INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- DAWS MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- JUPITER BACH NORTH AMERICA, INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- PREMIER BEVERAGE COBrownfields · 2600 ft
- BPB, INC. DBA BLAZER BOATS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferry Pass'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 Ferry Pass.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferry Pass
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferry Pass
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferry Pass, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Ferry Pass. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ferry Pass
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 Ferry Pass average
Your land is one point inside Ferry Pass
Everything above resolves to Ferry Pass as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Escambia County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Ferry Pass Average
Ferry Pass Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ferry Pass
- ●One soil character for all of Ferry Pass
- ●Frost dates read at Ferry Pass's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferry Pass's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferry Pass
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferry Pass, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferry Pass averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferry Pass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferry Pass average
How we know this about Ferry Pass
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 at Escambia 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 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 Ferry Pass
When does frost risk typically end in Ferry Pass?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferry Pass typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Ferry Pass?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferry Pass typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferry Pass?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferry Pass sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferry Pass?
The federal record around Ferry Pass runs heavier than most — 1,606 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (816), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ferry Pass?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ferry Pass's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferry Pass'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 Ferry Pass’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ferry Pass's own scale — the 8,900 acres it covers and 1,606 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferry Pass's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,606 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferry Pass, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferry Pass's boundary and the 8,900 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ferry Pass sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ferry Passlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ferry Pass has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Escambia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ferry Pass's 8,900 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Escambia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Escambia 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 Escambia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferry Pass's 8,900 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferry Pass you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,900 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ferry Pass-wide figureread your own land →
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