Salem County, in New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Salem County lies within the Delaware Bayshore — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Salem County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Salem 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 Salem County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Salem County — the short answer
Salem County, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 212K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 212K 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 Salem County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salem County's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Salem County
Across a year, Salem County accumulates about 3,714 growing degree days above 50°F, about 392 more than the middle New Jersey county — ahead of every other New Jersey county. 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 Salem County
Across Salem County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Downer, Othello, and Transquaking are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.3–5.8, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
37%
Hydric soils
37%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Salem County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Salem County as well drained — but another 57% drains differently: 22% moderately well drained, 20% very poorly drained.
Downer is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Othello (7%) and Transquaking (7%).
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 Salem County
Each reading below is measured for Salem 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 Salem County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Salem County runs about pH 4.3–5.8, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 37% of Salem 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
MeasuredSalem County runs about 244 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 Salem County is in
Salem County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens (59%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (41%). 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 Salem County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Salem County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 244-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 Salem County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Salem County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Salem County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Salem County
USGS estimates 60,004 lb of Glyphosate on Salem County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (19,048 lb) and Atrazine (19,022 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 Salem County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Salem County — 701 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Salem County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Salem County
Closest first, across Salem County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SJ EQUIPMENT REPAIRBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 330427-- Dom 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- ALLOWAY TWP AMBULANCE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ALLOWAY SERVICENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 84 CAMP EDGE ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SALEM CO SOLID WASTE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 330011-- Dom 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- BR WILLIAMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 102 MANNINGTON YORKTOWN ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ALLOWAY AIRFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 330240-- Salem Wd 3Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- QUINTON RADIO SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salem 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 Salem County.
Sources Checked
across Salem County
Severity Distribution
across Salem County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Salem County, two things run higher than the national average across Salem County — Nitrate (336 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Salem 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 Salem County average
Your land is one point inside Salem County
Everything above resolves to Salem County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 212K 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 Salem County Average
Salem County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Salem County
- ●One soil character for all of Salem County
- ●Frost dates read at Salem County's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salem County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Salem County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salem County, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salem County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salem County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salem County average
How we know this about Salem 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 Salem County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Salem County
When does frost risk typically end in Salem County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salem County typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Salem County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salem County sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 5, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salem County?
The federal record around Salem County is a meaningful one — 701 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (336), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Salem County's scale — its 7b band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salem 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 Salem County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Salem County's own scale — its own ~244-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 701 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salem County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salem County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Salem CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 701 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Salem County's boundary and the 212,391 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Salem County spans, Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Salem County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Salem 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 Salem County — the ~244 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 Salem County's 212,391 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 701 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 Salem Countyread your own land →