Florida · zones 8b–11a
When to plant strawberries in Florida.
Sow or transplant between Jan 20 to Feb 24 in a typical year, keyed to Florida's median last frost around Feb 3. A second, fall sowing fits Oct 16 to Nov 15. Dates below are state medians; your ZIP code shifts them by days to weeks.
The 2026 windows
Strawberries dates for a typical Florida season.
1 · Start indoors
Dec 9 to Jan 13
About 6 weeks before set-out. Warm spot, real light.
2 · Set out
Jan 20 to Feb 24
Keyed to the ~Feb 3 last frost. Sow 0" deep, 12" apart.
Fall round
Oct 16 to Nov 15
Counted back from the ~Dec 15 first frost.
Harvest
~90 days later
~1.5 lb per plant over ~8 weeks.
Florida spans more than one climate: Zone 9 is the most common zone, but the state runs 8b to 11a. That's why the planner works from your ZIP code's frost dates, not your zone: mountain and coastal gardens in the same state can be three weeks apart.
Florida growing notes
Plant City ships winter strawberries because nowhere else can.
One system, built entirely around Florida's calendar
The Plant City and Dover area in Hillsborough County runs one of the country's largest winter strawberry operations, and the whole system exists because of Florida's inverted growing calendar: plugs go into the ground in October, plants stay small through the mild winter, and the harvest runs hard from roughly December into March, exactly the stretch when almost nowhere else in the country can pick a fresh strawberry outdoors. It is an annual system, not a perennial one; the entire bed gets replanted from new plugs every fall rather than carried over year to year.
A home gardener anywhere in Florida can run the same basic system on a much smaller scale: set plants in fall rather than the spring timing a colder-climate garden would use, and expect to treat the bed as a one-season planting rather than a multi-year perennial bed. The day-neutral types shown here work within that same fall-to-spring window, picking through the mild months rather than fighting Florida's summer heat, which shuts strawberry production down completely.
A freeze night is a sprinkler problem, not a cover problem
An open strawberry bloom dies at 30 degrees while a closed bud survives into the upper 20s, and Florida's strawberry belt deals with that risk on plantings far too large to cover with row fabric, so growers there run overhead sprinklers through a freeze night instead. Water gives off a small amount of heat as it turns to ice on contact with the plant, and that steady release pins the ice-coated bloom close to 32 degrees even while the surrounding air keeps dropping.
A home garden bed is usually small enough that floating row cover, buying roughly 4 to 6 degrees of protection, is the simpler tool, but the sprinkler principle explains why commercial fields sometimes look frozen solid the morning after a hard freeze and still produce a full crop: the ice itself was protecting the bloom underneath it the whole night, not damaging it.
Spotted wing drosophila works fast in Florida's mild winter
Unlike a standard fruit fly, which needs a berry already soft or split before it moves in, spotted wing drosophila carries a saw-toothed egg-laying organ that cuts into fruit at peak ripeness, and Florida's mild winter keeps that insect working through more weeks of the harvest than a colder state's crop ever has to contend with. Waiting to see fruit flies swarming means eggs are likely already in berries that still look perfect on the plant.
Look over ripening berries for faint pin-sized marks on the skin, most visible along the shoulder in strong daylight, and pick the entire bed on a tight two to three day schedule once fruiting starts rather than letting ripe berries sit an extra day in the row. A clean, frequent pick schedule removes the exact stage of fruit this pest targets before it has much chance to lay eggs in it.
In Florida: watch for
The pests that find strawberries here.
With about 315 frost-free days, strawberry, day-neutral spends longer in the ground here than in most of the country, which widens the window in which spotted wing drosophila can find it. Scout weekly from midseason and act on the first signs.
Soft, quickly-rotting ripe berries with tiny larvae inside.
Organic fix: Pick often, chill fast, hang traps, exclude with fine netting.
Metallic beetles skeletonizing the leaves in summer.
Organic fix: Handpick into soapy water; neem.
White powder on leaves, or fuzzy gray rot on the fruit.
Organic fix: Prune for airflow, water at the base, spray neem.
Your season math: Florida gives strawberries about 315 frost-free days, and it needs roughly 90 days to a first harvest. It's a one-planting crop, so time that single sowing well.
Planting strawberries in Florida: questions
When should I plant strawberries in Florida?+
In a typical Florida year, sow strawberries or set out transplants between Jan 20 to Feb 24, keyed to the state's median last frost around Feb 3. There's also a fall window: Oct 16 to Nov 15. Your exact dates shift with your ZIP code and microclimate.
When do I start strawberries seeds indoors in Florida?+
Start seeds inside about 6 weeks before set-out: roughly Dec 9 to Jan 13 for a typical Florida season.
What USDA zone is Florida?+
Florida spans zones 8b–11a, mostly zone 9. But frost dates, not zones, set planting time. The free planner uses your ZIP code's actual frost dates.
How many strawberries plants do I need?+
Depends who you're feeding. The crop page has exact counts per household size, or the free planner does the math for your family in about 60 seconds.