Lutz, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Lutz, 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 Lutz 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 Lutz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lutz — the short answer
Lutz, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 16K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Lutz's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lutz's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lutz
Each reading below is measured for Lutz itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLutz runs about 329 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredLutz 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 Lutz is in
Lutz sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lutz's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsborough County.
What Grows in Lutz
Every plant below cleared Lutz'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 Lutz?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Lutz
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lutz. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HCS/MANISCALCO ELEMENTARYPFAS · 0 ft
- LUTZ PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DON OLSON FIRESTONEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ALL FABRIC DRY CLEANERS INC OF FLABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WINN DIXIE #611Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- 27S18E12 808227123413 FLNitrate · 0.8 mi
- PAYLESS #15Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ROBERT HART AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- LUTZ FIRST BAPTIST FLRD WELL NEAR LUTZ FLNitrate · 1.1 mi
- HILLSBOROUGH CNTY-FIRE DEPT #24Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FRONTIER FL LLC-LUTZ EAXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SPEEDWAY #6545Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lutz'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 Lutz.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lutz
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lutz
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 Lutz
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 Lutz average
Your land is one point inside Lutz
Everything above resolves to Lutz as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K acres. 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 Lutz Average
Lutz Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Lutz
- ●One soil character for all of Lutz
- ●Frost dates read at Lutz's scale: Jan 23 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lutz's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lutz
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lutz, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lutz averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lutz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lutz average
How we know this about Lutz
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 Lutz’s own record; 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 Lutz
When does frost risk typically end in Lutz?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lutz typically lands around Jan 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Lutz?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lutz typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lutz?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lutz sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 23 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 13 to Dec 4, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lutz?
The federal record around Lutz runs heavier than most — 1,712 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (713), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lutz?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lutz's scale — its 9b band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lutz'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 Lutz’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lutz's own scale — its own ~329-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,653 acres it covers and 1,712 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lutz's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lutz's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 23 and Dec 18 and the ~329-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,712 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lutz, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lutz's boundary and the 15,653 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 Lutz's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lutz's 15,653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsborough County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsborough 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 Hillsborough County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lutz's 15,653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lutz you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,653 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 Lutz-wide figureread your own land →
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