Fruit Cove, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Fruit Cove, 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 Fruit Cove 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 Fruit Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fruit Cove — the short answer
Fruit Cove, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 St. Johns County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fruit Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fruit Cove's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fruit Cove
Each reading below is measured for Fruit Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFruit Cove runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from St. Johns County, the closest normal to Fruit Cove) — 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
MeasuredFruit Cove 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 Fruit Cove is in
Fruit Cove sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fruit Cove's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Johns County.
What Grows in Fruit Cove
Every plant below cleared Fruit Cove's own zone 9b and its 329-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fruit Cove?
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 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Fruit Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fruit Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDWAY #6878Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- THE PANTRY #1201(DBA SPRINT #1201)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BELLSOUTH TEL INC #37992 MNDRFLLWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CIRCLE K #2726084Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #716Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #5819Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- FLORIDA DEP DSCP SITE ERIC_5402Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- THE KORIALS INC. DBA L&L CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5190Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- GATE STATION #1211Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- J C ARNOLD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WAWA #5382Brownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fruit Cove'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 Fruit Cove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fruit Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fruit Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Fruit Cove
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 Fruit Cove average
Your land is one point inside Fruit Cove
Everything above resolves to Fruit Cove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Johns 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 Fruit Cove Average
Fruit Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fruit Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Fruit Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Fruit Cove's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fruit Cove's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fruit Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fruit Cove, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fruit Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fruit Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fruit Cove average
How we know this about Fruit Cove
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 St. Johns 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 Fruit Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Fruit Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fruit Cove typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Fruit Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fruit Cove typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fruit Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fruit Cove sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 6, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fruit Cove?
The federal record around Fruit Cove is a meaningful one — 781 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (366), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Fruit Cove?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fruit Cove's scale — its 9b band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fruit Cove'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 Fruit Cove’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fruit Cove's own scale — the 10,314 acres it covers and 781 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fruit Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 781 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fruit Cove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fruit Cove's boundary and the 10,314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~329-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fruit Cove's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fruit Cove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Johns County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fruit Cove's 10,314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Johns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Johns 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 St. Johns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fruit Cove's 10,314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fruit Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,314 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Fruit Cove-wide figureread your own land →