Manatee Road, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Manatee Road, 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 Manatee Road 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 Manatee Road — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manatee Road — the short answer
Manatee Road, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 310 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~310
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Levy County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Manatee Road's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manatee Road's 310-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manatee Road
Each reading below is measured for Manatee Road itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsManatee Road runs about 310 days between hard freezes (read from Levy County, the closest normal to Manatee Road) — 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
MeasuredManatee Road 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 Manatee Road is in
Manatee Road sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Manatee Road's own centroid rather than borrowed from Levy County.
What Grows in Manatee Road
Every plant below cleared Manatee Road's own zone 9a and its 310-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manatee Road?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 10 — 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 Manatee Road
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manatee Road. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MANATEE GROCERY HUDSON JIFFY #2280Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- H&R SHOP & HOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- STONE CONTAINER CORP CHIEFLAND WOODYDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DEP Manatee Springs State Park MW #7BNitrate · 2.2 mi
- WHITE FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- HIGHLAND TRACTORBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- GILCHRIST BUILDING SUPPLY SOUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #507Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- CENTRAL FLORIDA ELECTRIC COOP INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- WHITE CONSTRUCTION CO-OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- TIRE MART OF CHIEFLANDBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- WHITE HOLDING COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manatee Road'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 Manatee Road.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Manatee Road
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manatee Road
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manatee Road
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manatee Road, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Manatee Road. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Manatee Road
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 Manatee Road average
Your land is one point inside Manatee Road
Everything above resolves to Manatee Road as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Levy 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 Manatee Road Average
Manatee Road Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Manatee Road
- ●One soil character for all of Manatee Road
- ●Frost dates read at Manatee Road's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manatee Road's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manatee Road
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manatee Road, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manatee Road averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manatee Road — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manatee Road average
How we know this about Manatee Road
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 Levy 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 Manatee Road
When does frost risk typically end in Manatee Road?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manatee Road 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 Manatee Road?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manatee Road typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 310 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manatee Road?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manatee Road sees about 310 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 26, about 275 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manatee Road?
The federal record around Manatee Road is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Manatee Road?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manatee Road's scale — its 9a band and its 310-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manatee Road'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 Manatee Road’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Manatee Road's own scale — the 8,322 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manatee Road's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manatee Road, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manatee Road's boundary and the 8,322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~310-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manatee Road's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Manatee Road has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Levy County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manatee Road's 8,322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Levy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Levy 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 Levy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manatee Road's 8,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manatee Road you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Manatee Road-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaManatee Road sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides