Webster, 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 Webster, 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 Webster 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 Webster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Webster — the short answer
Webster, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Sumter 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 Sumter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Webster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Webster's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Webster
Each reading below is measured for Webster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWebster runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Sumter County, the closest normal to Webster) — 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
MeasuredWebster 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 Webster is in
Webster sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Webster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumter County.
What Grows in Webster
Every plant below cleared Webster's own zone 9b and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Webster?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — 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 Webster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Webster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEBSTER FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- 836202131WEBSTER CITY WELL AT WEBSTER, FL.Nitrate · 700 ft
- JENNINGS CITRUS PACKERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SHELL-SAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHALES PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SUMTER CNTY SCHOOL BD-WEBSTER ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JACKIE'S MARKET SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JOY FOODS #663Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SHOP & GO SUPERETTE #4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BEVILLES CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAS2-24 4IN WELL(TALLAHASSEE DIST SAMPL)Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- SOUTHERN EQUIPMENT SALES & SERVICE LLCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Webster'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 Webster.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Webster
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Webster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Webster
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Webster
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 Webster average
Your land is one point inside Webster
Everything above resolves to Webster as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sumter 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 Webster Average
Webster Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Webster
- ●One soil character for all of Webster
- ●Frost dates read at Webster's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Webster's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Webster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Webster, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Webster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Webster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Webster average
How we know this about Webster
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 Sumter 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 Webster
When does frost risk typically end in Webster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Webster typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Webster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Webster typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Webster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Webster sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Dec 1, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Webster?
The federal record around Webster shows 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Webster?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Webster's scale — its 9b band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Webster'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 Webster’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Webster's own scale — the 1,606 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Webster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Webster, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Webster's boundary and the 1,606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Webster's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Webster has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sumter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Webster's 1,606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumter 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 Sumter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Webster's 1,606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Webster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,606 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 Webster-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaWebster sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides