Longboat Key, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor mango, tomato, orange, and sweet potato, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Longboat Key, 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 Longboat Key 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 Longboat Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Longboat Key — the short answer
Longboat Key, Florida: USDA zone 10b, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Manatee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Manatee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~335
- Manatee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Manatee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is Longboat Key's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Longboat Key's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Longboat Key
Each reading below is measured for Longboat Key itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLongboat Key runs about 335 days between hard freezes (read from Manatee County, the closest normal to Longboat Key) — 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
MeasuredLongboat Key sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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
What Grows in Longboat Key
Plants matched to Longboat Key's USDA zones 10b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Longboat Key?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 19 (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. 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 Longboat Key
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Longboat Key. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF LONGBOAT KEYPFAS · 25 ft
- FRONTIER FL LLC-LONGBOAT KEY EAX COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LONGBOAT LANDING CONDOSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BLUE GALEXY APARTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LONGBOAT COVE CONDOMINIUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TIDES OF LONGBOAT CONDO ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BUTTONWOOD COVE CONDOMINIUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LONGBOAT BAY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CANNONS MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LONGBOAT KEY CLUB-HARBOURSIDE GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HARBOUR VILLA CLUB CONDO ASSOC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BUCCANEER INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Longboat Key'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 Longboat Key.
Total Sites
1,272
within ~10 miles of Longboat Key
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Longboat Key
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Longboat Key
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Longboat Key
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 Longboat Key average
Your land is one point inside Longboat Key
Everything above resolves to Longboat Key as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Manatee 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 Longboat Key Average
Longboat Key Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Longboat Key
- ●One soil character for all of Longboat Key
- ●Frost dates read at Longboat Key's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Longboat Key's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Longboat Key
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Longboat Key, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Longboat Key averages can't show:
We read public map data around Longboat Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Longboat Key average
How we know this about Longboat Key
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 Manatee 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 Longboat Key
When does frost risk typically end in Longboat Key?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Longboat Key typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Longboat Key?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Longboat Key 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 335 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Longboat Key?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Longboat Key sees about 335 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 6, about 300 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Longboat Key?
The federal record around Longboat Key is a meaningful one — 1,272 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (715), the nearest PFAS 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 Longboat Key?
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 Longboat Key's scale — its 10b band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Longboat Key'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 Longboat Key’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Longboat Key's own scale — the 2,610 acres it covers and 1,272 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Longboat Key's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,272 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Longboat Key, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Longboat Key's boundary and the 2,610 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Longboat Key has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Manatee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Longboat Key's 2,610 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Manatee 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 Manatee 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 Manatee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Longboat Key's 2,610 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Longboat Key you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,610 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Longboat Key-wide figureread your own land →
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