Old Miakka, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Old Miakka, 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 Old Miakka 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 Old Miakka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Miakka — the short answer
Old Miakka, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 10a is Old Miakka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Miakka's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Miakka
Each reading below is measured for Old Miakka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Miakka runs about 332 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
MeasuredOld Miakka sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Old Miakka is in
Old Miakka sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Old Miakka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sarasota County.
What Grows in Old Miakka
Every plant below cleared Old Miakka's own zone 10a and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Miakka?
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 22 (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. 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 Old Miakka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Miakka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 36S20E27 719217132 FLNitrate · 1.2 mi
- 36S20E36 FLNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 37S20E01 717215113212 FLNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 36S20E22 720217333 FLNitrate · 1.6 mi
- 36S21E18 720214134324 FLNitrate · 2.6 mi
- RUSS GROVESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- RUSS FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 36S20E12344 FLNitrate · 2.9 mi
- JIM RUSSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 37S20E15 71521701132 FLNitrate · 4.0 mi
- VERNA PRODUCTION WELL 33 NEAR SARASOTA FLNitrate · 4.0 mi
- VERNA PRODUCTION WELL 36 NEAR SARASOTA FLNitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Old Miakka'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 Old Miakka.
Total Sites
217
within ~10 miles of Old Miakka
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Old Miakka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Miakka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Old Miakka, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Old Miakka — Nitrate (148 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Old Miakka
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 Old Miakka average
Your land is one point inside Old Miakka
Everything above resolves to Old Miakka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Old Miakka Average
Old Miakka Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Old Miakka
- ●One soil character for all of Old Miakka
- ●Frost dates read at Old Miakka's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Miakka's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Miakka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Miakka, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Miakka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Miakka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Miakka average
How we know this about Old Miakka
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 Old Miakka’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 Old Miakka
When does frost risk typically end in Old Miakka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Miakka typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Old Miakka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Miakka 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 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Miakka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Miakka sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 6, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Miakka?
The federal record around Old Miakka is a meaningful one — 217 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (148), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Old Miakka?
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 Old Miakka's scale — its 10a band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Miakka'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 Old Miakka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Old Miakka's own scale — its own ~332-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,796 acres it covers and 217 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Miakka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Miakka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 22 and Dec 20 and the ~332-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 217 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Miakka, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Miakka's boundary and the 7,796 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Miakka's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Old Miakka's 7,796 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sarasota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sarasota 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 Sarasota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Old Miakka's 7,796 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Miakka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,796 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Old Miakka-wide figureread your own land →