Florida, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Florida, 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 Florida 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 Florida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Florida — the short answer
Florida, Missouri: USDA zone 6a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 67 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 67 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 6a is Florida's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Florida's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Florida
Each reading below is measured for Florida itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFlorida runs about 222 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFlorida sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Florida is in
Florida sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Florida's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Monroe County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Florida
Every plant below cleared Florida's own zone 6a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Florida?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Florida
Survey cells within 31 miles of Florida checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 245 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Florida
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Florida. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T54N R08W 16AAD1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- CANNON PWSD 1PFAS · 2.3 mi
- MONROE COUNTY PWSD 2PFAS · 2.3 mi
- INDIAN CREEK MARINABrownfields · 3.6 mi
- MARK TWAIN STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- D AND M PORK LLCCAFO · 4.8 mi
- BUCKMAN FAMILY FARMS INCORPORATEDCAFO · 5.4 mi
- TWO MILE PORK - BUCKMAN FARMCAFO · 5.7 mi
- T54N R09W 34ABC1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1290Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- PERRY 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- C&C SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Florida'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 Florida.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Florida
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Florida
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Florida
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Florida
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 Florida average
Your land is one point inside Florida
Everything above resolves to Florida as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 67 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 Florida Average
Florida Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Florida
- ●One soil character for all of Florida
- ●Frost dates read at Florida's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Florida's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Florida
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Florida, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Florida averages can't show:
We read public map data around Florida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Florida average
How we know this about Florida
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 Florida’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 Florida
When does frost risk typically end in Florida?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Florida typically lands around Mar 30, 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 Apr 20.
When is the first frost in Florida?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Florida typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Florida?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Florida sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 24, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Florida?
The federal record around Florida shows 23 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles 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 Florida?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Florida's scale — its 6a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Florida'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 Florida’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Florida's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 67 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Florida's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Florida's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 7 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Florida, the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Florida's boundary and the 67 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Florida sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Florida checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Florida's 67 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 Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- 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 Florida's 67 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Florida you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 67 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Florida-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriFlorida sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides