What Grows in Kissimmee, Florida

USDA Zones 10a · 14K acres

Kissimmee, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.

On paper, mango, tomato, orange, and sweet potato all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.

Score your parcel · free

Even in Kissimmee, 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 Kissimmee 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 Kissimmee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

No card required · your full report in seconds

Kissimmee — the short answer

Kissimmee, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.

USDA zone
10a
USDA PHZM 2023
Last hard freeze (28°F)
Jan 25
Osceola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
First hard freeze (28°F)
Dec 14
Osceola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
Days between freezes
~323
Osceola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
City area
14K 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 Osceola County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.

Hardiness Zone Range

10a10a
3a (Cold)13b (Hot)

Zone 10a is Kissimmee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kissimmee's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.

Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.

What this means for growing in Kissimmee

Each reading below is measured for Kissimmee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.

Season length

From county records

Kissimmee runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Osceola County, the closest normal to Kissimmee) — 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

Measured

Kissimmee sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.

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 Kissimmee is in

Kissimmee sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kissimmee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Osceola County.

What that means for soil

Is it too late to plant in Kissimmee?

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 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 14 — 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 Kissimmee

Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kissimmee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.

  1. FRONTIER CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
  2. GOODYEAR TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
  3. FRONTIER CLEANERSBrownfields · 400 ft
  4. UNION 76-VINE STUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
  5. QUICK STOP INC OF ORLANDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
  6. PREMIER HEMATOLOGY & ONCOLOGYBrownfields · 750 ft
  7. ADVENTHEALTH INFUSION CENTER KISSIMMEEBrownfields · 750 ft
  8. BP AMOCO #60416Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
  9. CVS PHARMACY #0508Brownfields · 750 ft
  10. YATES OIL #308Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
  11. CUMBERLAND FARMS #0918Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
  12. PIP PRINTINGBrownfields · 1600 ft

6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map

Measured from Kissimmee'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 Kissimmee.

Total Sites

1,027

within ~10 miles of Kissimmee

Risk Level

Elevated

Highest-severity

4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)

Severity Distribution

within ~10 miles of Kissimmee

High0Moderate264Low763

Highest-Severity Sites

7-Eleven Food Store #22640
Underground Storage Tanks · Open UST(S)
7-Eleven Food Store #24832
Underground Storage Tanks · Open UST(S)
7-Eleven Food Store #25031
Underground Storage Tanks · Open UST(S)
7-Eleven Food Store #27160
Underground Storage Tanks · Open UST(S)
7-Eleven Food Store #27449
Underground Storage Tanks · Open UST(S)

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.
Free Report

Check your specific parcel in Kissimmee

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 Kissimmee average

Your land is one point inside Kissimmee

Everything above resolves to Kissimmee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 14K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Osceola 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 Kissimmee Average

Kissimmee Average

  • USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Kissimmee
  • One soil character for all of Kissimmee
  • Frost dates read at Kissimmee's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 14

YOUR Parcel

  • Your exact zone, not Kissimmee's 10a
  • Your SSURGO soil type & pH
  • Your sun exposure, cast in 3D

See MY Growing Report

Free Report

Read your specific parcel in Kissimmee

Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kissimmee, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.

Three things about your lot that Kissimmee averages can't show:

Your soil pHYour frost-free days — Kissimmee averages 323Your sun & shade

We read public map data around Kissimmee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kissimmee average

How we know this about Kissimmee

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 Osceola 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 Kissimmee

When does frost risk typically end in Kissimmee?

The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kissimmee 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 Kissimmee?

The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kissimmee typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.

How long is the growing season in Kissimmee?

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kissimmee sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Nov 30, about 288 days.

Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kissimmee?

The federal record around Kissimmee is a meaningful one — 1,027 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (501), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kissimmee?

From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.

Everything above is measured at Kissimmee's scale — its 10a band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kissimmee'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 Kissimmee’s own scale

4 of the readings below were taken at Kissimmee's own scale — the 13,782 acres it covers and 1,027 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.

Measured here

  • Kissimmee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
  • 1,027 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kissimmee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
  • Kissimmee's boundary and the 13,782 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
  • The ecoregion at Kissimmee's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions

Inherited from a wider read

  • The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kissimmee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Osceola County
  • Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kissimmee's 13,782 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Osceola County
  • The candidate plant list — Florida's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Florida
  • Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Osceola 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 Osceola County

What this page can’t tell you

  • The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kissimmee's 13,782 acreswhy one lot differs from the next
  • Which side of Kissimmee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,782 acresreading your own microclimate
  • How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kissimmee-wide figureread your own land
The next step finer is your own address