Ponce Inlet, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, mango, tomato, orange, and sweet potato all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Ponce Inlet, 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 Ponce Inlet 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 Ponce Inlet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ponce Inlet — the short answer
Ponce Inlet, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Volusia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Volusia 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 Volusia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Ponce Inlet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ponce Inlet's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ponce Inlet
Each reading below is measured for Ponce Inlet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPonce Inlet runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Volusia County, the closest normal to Ponce Inlet) — 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
MeasuredPonce Inlet 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 Ponce Inlet is in
Ponce Inlet sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ponce Inlet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Volusia County.
What Grows in Ponce Inlet
Plants matched to Ponce Inlet's USDA zones 10a, 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 Ponce Inlet?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 29 (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. 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 Ponce Inlet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ponce Inlet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LIL CHAMP #212Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LOGGERHEAD CLUB & INLET HARBOR MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- INLET HARBOR MARINABrownfields · 2500 ft
- INLET HARBOR MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TOWN OF PONCE INLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SEA LOVE BOAT WORKS INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PACETTA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SEA LOVE BOAT WORKS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- INLET HARBOR BOOKING OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FISHERMANS PARADISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LIGHTHOUSE BOATYARD AND MARINABrownfields · 1.0 mi
- LIGHTHOUSE BOAT YARD & YACHT SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ponce Inlet'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 Ponce Inlet.
Total Sites
521
within ~10 miles of Ponce Inlet
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ponce Inlet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ponce Inlet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ponce Inlet, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 330 sites within ~10 miles of Ponce Inlet. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ponce Inlet
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 Ponce Inlet average
Your land is one point inside Ponce Inlet
Everything above resolves to Ponce Inlet as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Volusia 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 Ponce Inlet Average
Ponce Inlet Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Ponce Inlet
- ●One soil character for all of Ponce Inlet
- ●Frost dates read at Ponce Inlet's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ponce Inlet's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ponce Inlet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ponce Inlet, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ponce Inlet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ponce Inlet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ponce Inlet average
How we know this about Ponce Inlet
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 Volusia 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 Ponce Inlet
When does frost risk typically end in Ponce Inlet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ponce Inlet typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Ponce Inlet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ponce Inlet 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 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ponce Inlet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ponce Inlet sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Dec 4, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ponce Inlet?
The federal record around Ponce Inlet is a meaningful one — 521 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (330), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ponce Inlet?
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 Ponce Inlet's scale — its 10a band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ponce Inlet'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 Ponce Inlet’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Ponce Inlet's own scale — the 2,751 acres it covers and 521 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ponce Inlet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 521 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ponce Inlet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ponce Inlet's boundary and the 2,751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Ponce Inlet's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ponce Inlet has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Volusia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ponce Inlet's 2,751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Volusia 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 Volusia 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 Volusia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ponce Inlet's 2,751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ponce Inlet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,751 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Ponce Inlet-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaPonce Inlet sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides