Lake Kerr, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Kerr, 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 Lake Kerr 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 Lake Kerr — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Kerr — the short answer
Lake Kerr, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 314 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~314
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Marion County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Lake Kerr's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Kerr's 314-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Kerr
Each reading below is measured for Lake Kerr itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Kerr runs about 314 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Lake Kerr) — 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
MeasuredLake Kerr 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 Lake Kerr is in
Lake Kerr sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Kerr's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Lake Kerr
Every plant below cleared Lake Kerr's own zone 9b and its 314-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Kerr?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (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 Lake Kerr
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Kerr. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAS1-14 4IN WELLNitrate · 1.8 mi
- 88 STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH WELL NE HWY 314 SALT SPGS,FLNitrate · 2.5 mi
- CLAY ELECTRIC CO OP-SALT DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- LAKE KERR GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- TRADING POST #IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CLAY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SALT SPRINGS PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SALT SPRINGS VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- HARRIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- FORMER SALT SPRINGS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- USDA-FOREST SERVICE #47731Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Kerr'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 Lake Kerr.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Kerr
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Kerr
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Kerr, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Kerr. 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 Lake Kerr
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 Lake Kerr average
Your land is one point inside Lake Kerr
Everything above resolves to Lake Kerr as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marion 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 Lake Kerr Average
Lake Kerr Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Lake Kerr
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Kerr
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Kerr's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Kerr's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Kerr
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Kerr, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Kerr averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Kerr — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Kerr average
How we know this about Lake Kerr
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 Marion 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 Lake Kerr
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Kerr?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Kerr typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Lake Kerr?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Kerr 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 314 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Kerr?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Kerr sees about 314 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 30, about 279 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Kerr?
The federal record around Lake Kerr is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake Kerr?
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 Lake Kerr's scale — its 9b band and its 314-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Kerr'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 Lake Kerr’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lake Kerr's own scale — the 6,319 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Kerr's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Kerr, the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Kerr's boundary and the 6,319 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~314-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Kerr's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Kerr has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marion County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Kerr's 6,319 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Kerr's 6,319 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Kerr you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,319 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Lake Kerr-wide figureread your own land →
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