East Rutherford, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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.
Even in East Rutherford, 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 East Rutherford 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 East Rutherford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Rutherford — the short answer
East Rutherford, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- 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 7b is East Rutherford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Rutherford's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Rutherford
Each reading below is measured for East Rutherford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Rutherford runs about 245 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
MeasuredEast Rutherford sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 East Rutherford is in
East Rutherford sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Rutherford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bergen County.
What Grows in East Rutherford
Every plant below cleared East Rutherford's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Rutherford?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 East Rutherford
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from East Rutherford, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Rutherford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Rutherford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MEEHAN TOOKERToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- MEEHAN TOOKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ENER-G RUDOX, LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- COATES SCREEN INCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- COATES SCREEN INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KULITE TUNGSTEN CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- KULITE TUNGSTEN CORPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TRANS WORLD MARKETINGToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- SUN CHEMICAL CORP US INK DIVToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- BTF CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BTF CORPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- PENN BOTTLE & SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Rutherford'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 East Rutherford.
Total Sites
14,240
within ~10 miles of East Rutherford
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
196 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Rutherford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Rutherford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Rutherford, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 196 sites within ~10 miles of East Rutherford. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 East Rutherford
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 East Rutherford average
Your land is one point inside East Rutherford
Everything above resolves to East Rutherford 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 East Rutherford Average
East Rutherford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across East Rutherford
- ●One soil character for all of East Rutherford
- ●Frost dates read at East Rutherford's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Rutherford's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Rutherford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Rutherford, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Rutherford averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Rutherford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Rutherford average
How we know this about East Rutherford
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 East Rutherford’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 East Rutherford
When does frost risk typically end in East Rutherford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Rutherford typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in East Rutherford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Rutherford typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Rutherford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Rutherford sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 9, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Rutherford?
The federal record around East Rutherford runs heavier than most — 14,240 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8,470), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in East Rutherford?
From about Oct 24 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 Nov 23 (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 Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Rutherford's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Rutherford'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 East Rutherford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Rutherford's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,376 acres it covers and 14,240 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Rutherford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Rutherford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 23 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14,240 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Rutherford, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Rutherford's boundary and the 2,376 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Rutherford's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Rutherfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Rutherford's 2,376 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bergen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bergen 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 Bergen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Rutherford's 2,376 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Rutherford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,376 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 East Rutherford-wide figureread your own land →