Somerset 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Somerset County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Somerset 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 Somerset County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Somerset County — the short answer
Somerset County, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 193K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 193K 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 Somerset County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somerset County's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Somerset County
Across a year, Somerset County accumulates about 3,118 growing degree days above 50°F, about 204 fewer than the middle New Jersey county — ahead of 6 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 Somerset County
Across Somerset County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Penn, Klinesville, and Neshaminy are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.4, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
35%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Somerset County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Somerset County as well drained — but another 51% drains differently: 18% moderately well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Penn is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Klinesville (8%) and Neshaminy (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 Somerset County
Each reading below is measured for Somerset 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 Somerset 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 Somerset County runs about pH 5.0–5.4, 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
MeasuredSomerset County runs about 212 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
MeasuredSomerset 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 Somerset County is in
Somerset 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 Somerset County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Somerset County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 212-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 Somerset 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 Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Somerset County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Somerset County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle16 documented records
- monarch butterfly208 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Somerset County
USGS estimates 4,222 lb of Glyphosate on Somerset County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (1,218 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,061 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 Somerset County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Somerset County — 1,328 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 36 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Somerset 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 Somerset County
Closest first, across Somerset County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOMERSET COUNTY LFSuperfund · 650 ft
- DUKE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SAKER SHOPRITE #468Brownfields · 1200 ft
- DENSON'S AUTO REPAIR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PYMAH CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BP 95685Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- V A SUPPLY DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RAJ CHEMICALS AMERICAS LLCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- VAN ARSDALE FUNERAL HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RICHARDS FUEL LOT 9Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ABCA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SILVERMAN FAMILY TRUSTBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somerset 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 Somerset County.
Sources Checked
across Somerset County
Severity Distribution
across Somerset County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somerset County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 36 sites across Somerset County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Somerset 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 Somerset County average
Your land is one point inside Somerset County
Everything above resolves to Somerset County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 193K 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 Somerset County Average
Somerset County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Somerset County
- ●One soil character for all of Somerset County
- ●Frost dates read at Somerset County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somerset County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Somerset County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somerset County, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somerset County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somerset County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somerset County average
How we know this about Somerset 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 Somerset County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Somerset County
When does frost risk typically end in Somerset County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Somerset County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somerset County sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somerset County?
The federal record around Somerset County runs heavier than most — 1,328 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (782), the nearest Superfund record about 0.1 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 Somerset County's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somerset 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 Somerset County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Somerset County's own scale — its own ~212-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,328 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somerset County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Somerset County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Somerset CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,328 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Superfund record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Somerset County's boundary and the 193,199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Somerset County sitting wholly inside the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Somerset County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Somerset 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 Somerset County — the ~212 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 Somerset County's 193,199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,328 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 Somerset Countyread your own land →