Tampa Bay spans USDA hardiness zones 9b-10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Florida's central Gulf-coast metro, where Tampa Bay's water holds the immediate shoreline in near-frost-free zone 10a while the ridge just inland at Pasco drops to 9b — a maritime coastal-versus-interior split at one latitude that changes when tender crops can safely go in the ground. Growers here do well with tomato, sweet potato, jalapeno, and mango — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Tampa Bay spans Florida.
Your yard isn't all of Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay spans USDA zones 9b-10a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Tampa Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tampa Bay — the short answer
Tampa Bay: USDA zones 9b-10a, 325–365 frost-free days depending where in it you stand, in Florida.
- USDA zones
- 9b-10a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Shortest season here
- 325 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020 — Pasco County
- Counties
- 4
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. The season figure is this region's own record, measured across its 4 member counties, not a state or national average.
Hardiness Zone Range
Tampa Bay is not one growing season
One answer for Tampa Bay averages 4 counties whose growing seasons are 40 days apart — from 325 frost-free days in Pasco County to 365 in Pinellas County. That is the same region, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your land sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 4 counties runs 333–365 days, with a median of 350 days — a 40-day span end to end.
Measured across 4 member counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020. A member with no own record is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the region. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
What Grows in Tampa Bay
All 3 of the plants below that publish a season requirement clear even Pasco County’s 325 frost-free days — so on season alone, this grid works at both ends of the region. The 40-day spread still decides how far past this list you can push, and how early you can start.
Plants matched to Tampa Bay's USDA zones 9b-10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of Tampa Bay
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets Tampa Bay’s USDA zones 9b-10a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across Tampa Bay
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across four member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Spodosols, at 52% of mapped acres, followed by Entisols (22%), Alfisols (9%) and Mollisols (5%). Seven soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Myakka, EauGallie, and Candler.
47% of those acres are poorly drained, and another 16% very poorly drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.6–7.2 between the lowest and the highest county on record.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Topsoil pH
4.6–7.2
Hydric soils
31%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Manatee County holds the most wetland ground here, at 38% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in Tampa Bay
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across Tampa Bay. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records47% of the mapped acres across Tampa Bay are poorly drained — ground that sheds water slowly. That is area-weighted across all four of its mapped counties.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across Tampa Bay runs pH 4.6–7.2 — acidic in three of its four counties.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Tampa Bay — and how to grow with it.
Across Tampa Bay's 4 counties the federal record holds 12,427 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (6,075), Brownfields (3,587) and Nitrate (2,146). The heaviest single county is Hillsborough County, with 5,454.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to Tampa Bay to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 4 counties in Tampa Bay
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.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside Tampa Bay
Everything above resolves to Tampa Bay as a whole — a footprint whose own counties record seasons 40 days apart, and hardiness across zones 9b-10a. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs Tampa Bay Average
Tampa Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b-10a, averaged across Tampa Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Tampa Bay
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tampa Bay's 9b-10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tampa Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tampa Bay — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tampa Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tampa Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not Tampa Bay average
How we know this about Tampa Bay
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about Tampa Bay
What hardiness zone is Tampa Bay?
Tampa Bay spans USDA hardiness zones 9b-10a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in Tampa Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tampa Bay's counties mostly run 333 to 365 frost-free days, median 350 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 4 member counties). That 32-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 4 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in Tampa Bay?
Across Tampa Bay, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Jan 21 and Jan 25 (median Jan 23), and their first fall freeze between Dec 19 and Dec 20. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Feb 13, and elevation decides which end of a 4-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in Tampa Bay?
Tampa Bay's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Sweet Potato, Jalapeno, Mango, Orange, Banana. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is Tampa Bay defined?
Tampa Bay is defined here as a curated cluster of 4 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does Tampa Bay cover?
Tampa Bay spans Florida. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Gulf Coast, Florida Panhandle, Northeast Florida, Southwest Florida (Naples–Fort Myers–Sarasota), Central Florida Ridge, and Everglades Agricultural Area share at least one state with Tampa Bay. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at Tampa Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tampa Bay's own scale — the zone 9b-10a band across its footprint, a median 350-day season across its 4 counties and 12,427 documented federal contamination records across its 4 counties, 5,454 of them in Hillsborough County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 9b-10a aggregated across all 4 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 4 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 4 counties run 333 to 365 frost-free days, median 350NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 12,427 documented federal contamination records across its 4 counties, 5,454 of them in Hillsborough County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 52% Spodosols, topsoil pH 4.6–7.2, area-weighted across its 4 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 9b-10afrom Florida
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 32-day range your ground sits at — 333 days at one extreme, 365 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore Tampa Bay
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Florida
The humid, near-frost-free coastal rim of the Gulf of Mexico — long seasons, sandy and alluvial soils, heat, and hurricanes shaping what thrives. (Representative coastal counties, not exhaustive.)
North Florida's mild-winter coastal plain of sandy and clay soils — a transition zone growing both Southern staples and subtropical fruit.
The Atlantic-facing northeast peninsula — Jacksonville, Gainesville, and St. Augustine along the St. Johns River — where ocean-moderated Zone 9a–9b winters and deep sandy coastal-plain flatwoods set a warmer floor and a tighter, earlier frost window than the Gulf-side Panhandle to the west (no genuine 8b interior here; last frost lands ~late January to mid-February).
Florida's lower Gulf coast — a near-frost-free subtropical corridor (USDA zone 10a–10b along the shore, dropping to 9b in the DeSoto interior) where mangrove shorelines, sandy and marl soils, and hurricane exposure shape what grows. Year-round warm-season vegetables and mainland tropical fruit thrive here on a Gulf-side footprint distinct from both the cooler Central Florida interior and the Atlantic shore at the same latitude.
The Lake Wales Ridge, a well-drained white-sand spine running about 100 miles down the Florida peninsula from Lake County south through Orange, Osceola, Polk, and Highlands, anchors this historic citrus belt in USDA zones 9b–10a with 323-to-335-day frost-free seasons.
The Everglades Agricultural Area is roughly 700,000 acres of drained peat-and-muck farmland south of Lake Okeechobee, defined under Florida's Everglades Forever Act (§373.4592, F.S.); its member counties span USDA zones 10a to 10b with a frost-free to 326-plus-day growing season, the deep organic soils behind the region's sugarcane and winter-vegetable harvests.