Induced defenses are well-known to increase prey survivorship in the presence of predators and carry growth costs. However, our understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of these cost-benefit interactions and how they shift across landscapes is limited. We investigated how raising a model foundation species, oysters Crassostrea virginica, under commercial hatchery conditions with cues from a common predator can alter shell microproperties, improve survival, and govern growth patterns spanning 55 sites across the Alabama coastline. Oysters exposed to predator cues developed a 4% harder and 16% thicker foliated layer in their shell which increased the crushing force shells could withstand by 52% (Figure 1). Oysters induced to grow defenses under these methods had 68% greater survivorship over controls after a year when used to build a new ~42 m2 reef (Figure 2). Developing these defenses had marked costs in shell size and soft tissue mass initially. However, growing caged oysters across the coastline with citizen scientists found that these differences were essentially nonexistent after six months in the field. Instead, oyster growth was highly dependent on local conditions, with average shell size and soft tissue mass varying 120% and 570% respectively within the region. Our findings provide insights on how minute physiological changes can structure ecological interactions and highlight the applications of a new culturing technique.