Stock Island, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stock Island, 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 Stock Island 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 Stock Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stock Island — the short answer
Stock Island, Florida: USDA zone 11b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 536 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 11b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 536 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 11b is Stock Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stock Island's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stock Island
Each reading below is measured for Stock Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStock Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b.
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 Stock Island is in
Stock Island sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Stock Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Stock Island
Every plant below cleared Stock Island's own zone 11b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Stock Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stock Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STOCK ISLAND MARINA VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- A1A USED AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 450 ft
- SANDS MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ALEX AUTO JUNKYARDBrownfields · 750 ft
- KEY WEST ENGINE SERVICEBrownfields · 750 ft
- 3D OF KEY WESTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CITY OF KEY WEST SOLID WASTE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ROBBIES OF KEY WESTBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SOUTHERNMOST POWDER COATINGBrownfields · 1800 ft
- KEY WEST BOAT REPAIR AND MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FLORIDA MUNICIPAL POWER AGENCY - STOCK ISLANDBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FLORIDA MUNICIPAL POWER AGENCY - STOCK ISLANDToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stock Island'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 Stock Island.
Total Sites
230
within ~10 miles of Stock Island
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stock Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stock Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stock Island, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Stock Island. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Stock Island
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 Stock Island average
Your land is one point inside Stock Island
Everything above resolves to Stock Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 536 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 Stock Island Average
Stock Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 11b, averaged across Stock Island
- ●One soil character for all of Stock Island
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stock Island's 11b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stock Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stock Island, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stock Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stock Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stock Island average
How we know this about Stock Island
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Stock Island
Is it too late to plant in Stock Island?
No — Stock Island has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Stock Island?
It doesn't — Stock Island records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Stock Island?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Stock Island contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stock Island?
The federal record around Stock Island is a meaningful one — 230 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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.
Everything above is measured at Stock Island's scale — its 11b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Stock Island'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 Stock Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stock Island's own scale — the 536 acres it covers and 230 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stock Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Stock Island — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 230 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stock Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stock Island's boundary and the 536 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Stock Island's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stock Island's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stock Island's 536 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stock Island's 536 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stock Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 536 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Stock Island-wide figureread your own land →
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