Umatilla, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Umatilla, 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 Umatilla 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 Umatilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Umatilla — the short answer
Umatilla, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Lake County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Umatilla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Umatilla's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Umatilla
Each reading below is measured for Umatilla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUmatilla runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from Lake County, the closest normal to Umatilla) — 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
MeasuredUmatilla 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 Umatilla is in
Umatilla sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Umatilla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Umatilla
Every plant below cleared Umatilla's own zone 9b and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Umatilla?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 26 (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 Umatilla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Umatilla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE CNTY SCHOOL BD-UMATILLA BUS LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LAKE CNTY SCHOOL BD-UMATILLA HSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- UMATILLA SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- UMATILLA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CHOICE FOOD AND GAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ATKINSON GROVE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- UMATILLA MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CITGO-COLLINS'Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MASON JARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SMILEYS ICE CREAM PARLORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- UMATILLA CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CIRCLE K #2722804Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Umatilla'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 Umatilla.
Total Sites
350
within ~10 miles of Umatilla
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Umatilla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Umatilla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Umatilla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Umatilla — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (220 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Umatilla
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 Umatilla average
Your land is one point inside Umatilla
Everything above resolves to Umatilla as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Umatilla Average
Umatilla Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Umatilla
- ●One soil character for all of Umatilla
- ●Frost dates read at Umatilla's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Umatilla's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Umatilla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Umatilla, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Umatilla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Umatilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Umatilla average
How we know this about Umatilla
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lake 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Umatilla
When does frost risk typically end in Umatilla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Umatilla typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Umatilla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Umatilla 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 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Umatilla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Umatilla sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 6, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Umatilla?
The federal record around Umatilla is a meaningful one — 350 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (220), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Umatilla?
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 Umatilla's scale — its 9b band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Umatilla'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 Umatilla’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Umatilla's own scale — the 2,337 acres it covers and 350 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Umatilla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 350 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Umatilla, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Umatilla's boundary and the 2,337 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Umatilla's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Umatilla has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Umatilla's 2,337 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Umatilla's 2,337 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Umatilla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,337 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Umatilla-wide figureread your own land →
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