Byram Center, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Byram Center, 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 Byram Center 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 Byram Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Byram Center — the short answer
Byram Center, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Byram Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Byram Center's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Byram Center
Each reading below is measured for Byram Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredByram Center runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredByram Center sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Byram Center is in
Byram Center sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Byram Center's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sussex County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Byram Center
Every plant below cleared Byram Center's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Byram Center?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Byram Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Byram Center, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Byram Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Byram Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BYRAM CRUSHED STONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STANHOPE W DEPTPFAS · 1500 ft
- GORDON BYRAM ASSOC LLCPFAS · 1500 ft
- BECKS SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 1700 ft
- MANSFIELD TRAIL DUMP SUPERFUND SITEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- BECKS SERVICE STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- A F DRILLING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NJDOT STANHOPE ELECTRICAL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BYRAM TWP MUNICIPAL COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 370359-- PW-1 ObsNitrate · 2400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6075Brownfields · 2500 ft
- ROUTE US 206 CAT SWAMP MOUNTAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Byram Center'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 Byram Center.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Byram Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Byram Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Byram Center, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Byram Center — PFAS (23 sites) and Nitrate (614 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Byram Center
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 Byram Center average
Your land is one point inside Byram Center
Everything above resolves to Byram Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Byram Center Average
Byram Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Byram Center
- ●One soil character for all of Byram Center
- ●Frost dates read at Byram Center's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Byram Center's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Byram Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Byram Center, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Byram Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Byram Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Byram Center average
How we know this about Byram Center
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 Byram Center’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 Byram Center
When does frost risk typically end in Byram Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Byram Center typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
When is the first frost in Byram Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Byram Center typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Byram Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Byram Center sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 11, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Byram Center?
The federal record around Byram Center runs heavier than most — 1,542 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (652), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Byram Center?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Byram Center's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Byram Center'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 Byram Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Byram Center's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,832 acres it covers and 1,542 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Byram Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Byram Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 25 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,542 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Byram Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Byram Center's boundary and the 1,832 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Byram Center sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Byram Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Byram Center's 1,832 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex County
- The growing challenges every New Jersey grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Jersey
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Byram Center's 1,832 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Byram Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,832 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Byram Center-wide figureread your own land →