Lecanto, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lecanto, 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 Lecanto 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 Lecanto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lecanto — the short answer
Lecanto, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Citrus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Citrus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Citrus County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Citrus County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lecanto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lecanto's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lecanto
Each reading below is measured for Lecanto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLecanto runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Citrus County, the closest normal to Lecanto) — 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
MeasuredLecanto 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 Lecanto is in
Lecanto sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lecanto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Citrus County.
What Grows in Lecanto
Every plant below cleared Lecanto's own zone 9a and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lecanto?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Lecanto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lecanto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LECANTO HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 600 ft
- LECANTO TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CITRUS CNTY SCHOOL BD-LECANTO MSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CITRUS CNTY SCHOOL BD-LECANTO HSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITRUS CNTY SCHOOL BD-LECANTO PRIMARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CEMEX LECANTO WESTToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CRYSTAL RIVER QUARRIES INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CEMEX LECANTO EASTToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- CITRUS CNTY-FLEET MGMTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CITRUS COUNTY LECANTO MAINTENANCE COMPLEXBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- HOMOSASSA COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LECANTO ONE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lecanto'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 Lecanto.
Total Sites
341
within ~10 miles of Lecanto
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lecanto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lecanto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lecanto, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Lecanto. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lecanto
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 Lecanto average
Your land is one point inside Lecanto
Everything above resolves to Lecanto as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 17K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Citrus 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 Lecanto Average
Lecanto Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lecanto
- ●One soil character for all of Lecanto
- ●Frost dates read at Lecanto's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lecanto's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lecanto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lecanto, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lecanto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lecanto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lecanto average
How we know this about Lecanto
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 Citrus 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 Lecanto
When does frost risk typically end in Lecanto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lecanto typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Lecanto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lecanto typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lecanto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lecanto sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 29, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lecanto?
The federal record around Lecanto is a meaningful one — 341 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Lecanto?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lecanto's scale — its 9a band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lecanto'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 Lecanto’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lecanto's own scale — the 17,236 acres it covers and 341 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lecanto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 341 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lecanto, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lecanto's boundary and the 17,236 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lecanto's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lecanto has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Citrus County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lecanto's 17,236 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Citrus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Citrus 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 Citrus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lecanto's 17,236 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lecanto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,236 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Lecanto-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaLecanto sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides