Elwood, 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.
Even in Elwood, 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 Elwood 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 Elwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elwood — the short answer
Elwood, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- 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 7a is Elwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elwood's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elwood
Each reading below is measured for Elwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElwood runs about 217 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
MeasuredElwood 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 Elwood is in
Elwood sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Elwood
Every plant below cleared Elwood's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elwood?
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 5 — 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 Elwood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Elwood, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASINO AUTO REPAIRS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NJ BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELWOOD VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 010762-- Dom 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 010383-- BOENitrate · 0.8 mi
- DOROTHY SORRENTINOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MAYS LANDING MAINT YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 010378-- IrrNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 2877 ELWOOD LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 010256-- Scholler 1 ObsNitrate · 1.9 mi
- 010377-- HamiltonNitrate · 1.9 mi
- 010387-- Obs 6Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elwood'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 Elwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elwood — Nitrate (410 sites) and Superfund (17 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Elwood
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 Elwood average
Your land is one point inside Elwood
Everything above resolves to Elwood 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 Elwood Average
Elwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Elwood
- ●One soil character for all of Elwood
- ●Frost dates read at Elwood's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elwood's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elwood, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elwood average
How we know this about Elwood
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 Elwood’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 Elwood
When does frost risk typically end in Elwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elwood 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.
When is the first frost in Elwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elwood typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elwood sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 22, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elwood?
The federal record around Elwood runs heavier than most — 806 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (410), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Elwood?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elwood's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elwood'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 Elwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elwood's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,043 acres it covers and 806 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 5 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 806 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elwood's boundary and the 2,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elwood's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elwoodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elwood's 2,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic 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 Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elwood's 2,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Elwood-wide figureread your own land →
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