Passaic County, in New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Passaic County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Passaic 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 Passaic County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Passaic County — the short answer
Passaic County, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 119K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 119K 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 7a is Passaic County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Passaic County's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Passaic County
Across a year, Passaic County accumulates about 3,000 growing degree days above 50°F, about 322 fewer than the middle New Jersey county — ahead of 4 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 Passaic County
Across Passaic County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Rockaway, Swartswood, and Riverhead are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Passaic County
The USDA soil survey maps 23% of Passaic County as well drained — but another 35% drains differently: 17% moderately well drained, 8% poorly drained.
Rockaway is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Swartswood (13%) and Riverhead (8%).
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 Passaic County
Each reading below is measured for Passaic 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 Passaic 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 Passaic County runs about pH 4.5–5.0, on the acidic side.
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
Season length
MeasuredPassaic County runs about 218 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPassaic County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Passaic County is in
Passaic County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Highlands (66%) and Northern Piedmont (34%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Passaic County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Passaic County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 218-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 Passaic County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Passaic County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Passaic County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly43 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Passaic County
USGS estimates 233 lb of Chlorpyrifos on Passaic County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (197 lb) and Diazinon (73 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Passaic County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Passaic County — 2,114 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 34 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Passaic 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 Passaic County
Closest first, across Passaic County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VENEZIAS AUTO SUPPLIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ATLAS PAVING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NORTH JERSEY DIST WATER SUPPLY COMMBrownfields · 2300 ft
- 35 BURNSIDE PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NORTH JERSEY DISTRICT WATER SUPPLY COMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NJDWSC - GREAT NOTCH PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WANAQUE HEADWORKS NJDWSCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TULLO & D'AMICO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ARROW SHED LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ARROW SHED LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Passaic 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 Passaic County.
Sources Checked
across Passaic County
Severity Distribution
across Passaic County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Passaic County, two things run higher than the national average across Passaic County — Toxics Release Inventory (172 sites) and Superfund (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Passaic 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 Passaic County average
Your land is one point inside Passaic County
Everything above resolves to Passaic County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 119K 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 Passaic County Average
Passaic County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Passaic County
- ●One soil character for all of Passaic County
- ●Frost dates read at Passaic County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Passaic County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Passaic County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Passaic County, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Passaic County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Passaic County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Passaic County average
How we know this about Passaic 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 Passaic County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Passaic County
When does frost risk typically end in Passaic County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Passaic County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Passaic County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Passaic County sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 23, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Passaic County?
The federal record around Passaic County runs heavier than most — 2,114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,388), 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 Passaic County's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Passaic 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 Passaic County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Passaic County's own scale — its own ~218-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 2,114 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Passaic County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Passaic County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Passaic CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 2,114 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
- Passaic County's boundary and the 119,124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Passaic County spans, Northeastern Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Passaic County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Passaic County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
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 Passaic County — the ~218 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 Passaic County's 119,124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 2,114 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 Passaic Countyread your own land →