Thonotosassa, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Thonotosassa, 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 Thonotosassa 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 Thonotosassa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Thonotosassa — the short answer
Thonotosassa, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- 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
- ~332
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 17K 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 Thonotosassa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Thonotosassa's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Thonotosassa
Each reading below is measured for Thonotosassa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThonotosassa 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
MeasuredThonotosassa 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 Thonotosassa is in
Thonotosassa sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Thonotosassa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsborough County.
What Grows in Thonotosassa
Every plant below cleared Thonotosassa's own zone 9b and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Thonotosassa?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 20 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Thonotosassa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Thonotosassa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLORIDA GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY, LLC - CS #27Brownfields · 1800 ft
- FAMILY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HILLSBOROUGH CNTY-FIRE DEPT #21Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SOUTHWEST FL WATER MGMT DIST - S-159Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SPRINKLE BOB RUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AMERICAN BORROW PITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CIRCLE K #7074Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CIRCLE K #7074Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- ROBBINS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MILLER & SONS TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- FRONTIER FL LLC-THONOTOSASSA EAXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MILLER & SONS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Thonotosassa'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 Thonotosassa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Thonotosassa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Thonotosassa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Thonotosassa, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Thonotosassa. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Thonotosassa
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 Thonotosassa average
Your land is one point inside Thonotosassa
Everything above resolves to Thonotosassa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Thonotosassa Average
Thonotosassa Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Thonotosassa
- ●One soil character for all of Thonotosassa
- ●Frost dates read at Thonotosassa's scale: Jan 20 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Thonotosassa's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Thonotosassa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Thonotosassa, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Thonotosassa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Thonotosassa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Thonotosassa average
How we know this about Thonotosassa
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 Thonotosassa’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 Thonotosassa
When does frost risk typically end in Thonotosassa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Thonotosassa typically lands around Jan 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Thonotosassa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Thonotosassa 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 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Thonotosassa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Thonotosassa sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Dec 4, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Thonotosassa?
The federal record around Thonotosassa runs heavier than most — 2,237 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,045), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 Thonotosassa?
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 Thonotosassa's scale — its 9b band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Thonotosassa'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 Thonotosassa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Thonotosassa's own scale — its own ~332-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,948 acres it covers and 2,237 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Thonotosassa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Thonotosassa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 20 and Dec 18 and the ~332-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,237 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Thonotosassa, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Thonotosassa's boundary and the 16,948 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Thonotosassa's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Thonotosassa's 16,948 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 Thonotosassa's 16,948 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Thonotosassa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,948 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Thonotosassa-wide figureread your own land →
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