Hudson County, in New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Hudson County lies within the North Jersey (Gateway / NYC-Metro Urban Corridor) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hudson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hudson County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Hudson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hudson County — the short answer
Hudson County, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 30K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 30K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 7b is Hudson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hudson County's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hudson County
Across a year, Hudson County accumulates about 3,661 growing degree days above 50°F, about 339 more than the middle New Jersey county — ahead of 19 of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Hudson County
Across Hudson County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Westbrook, Laguardia, and Greenbelt are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a material surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.6–7.4, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
0%
Hydric soils
29%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hudson County
The USDA soil survey maps 9% of Hudson County as well drained — but another 9% drains differently: 5% very poorly drained, 4% moderately well drained.
Westbrook is the most extensive named soil at 28% of mapped acres, then Laguardia (23%) and Greenbelt (15%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hudson County
Each reading below is measured for Hudson County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hudson County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hudson County runs about pH 5.6–7.4, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 29% of Hudson County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHudson County runs about 254 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
The kind of country Hudson County is in
Hudson County sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hudson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hudson County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 254-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile.
Is it too late to plant in Hudson County?
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 Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Hudson County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hudson County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hudson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hudson County — 1,970 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 39 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Hudson County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hudson County
Closest first, across Hudson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEL - KAN CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ULTRA TRUCK AUTO PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KV REALTY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MARION GARDENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HOLY NAME CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 170015-- MW143Nitrate · 1600 ft
- ST PETERS COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 170025-- MW 143RNitrate · 1700 ft
- GEORGES EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHIC-E COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GETTY 56889Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WELLEN OIL & CHEMICAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hudson County'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 Hudson County.
Sources Checked
across Hudson County
Severity Distribution
across Hudson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hudson County, two things run higher than the national average across Hudson County — Superfund (39 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (1,259 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hudson County
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 Hudson County average
Your land is one point inside Hudson County
Everything above resolves to Hudson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 30K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Hudson County Average
Hudson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hudson County
- ●One soil character for all of Hudson County
- ●Frost dates read at Hudson County's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hudson County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hudson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hudson County, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hudson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hudson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hudson County average
How we know this about Hudson County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Hudson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hudson County
When does frost risk typically end in Hudson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hudson County typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Hudson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hudson County sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 16, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hudson County?
The federal record around Hudson County runs heavier than most — 1,970 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,259), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Hudson County's scale — its 7b band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hudson County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New Jersey's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Hudson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Hudson County's own scale — its own ~254-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,970 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hudson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hudson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hudson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,970 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hudson County's boundary and the 29,563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hudson County sitting wholly inside the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hudson County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New Jersey grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Jersey
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hudson County — the ~254 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hudson County's 29,563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,970 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Hudson Countyread your own land →