Farmingdale, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Farmingdale, 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 Farmingdale 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 Farmingdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Farmingdale — the short answer
Farmingdale, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 333 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 333 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 Farmingdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farmingdale's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farmingdale
Each reading below is measured for Farmingdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarmingdale runs about 224 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
MeasuredFarmingdale 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 Farmingdale is in
Farmingdale sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farmingdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Farmingdale
Every plant below cleared Farmingdale's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farmingdale?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Farmingdale
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Farmingdale, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Farmingdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farmingdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RACESTARUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FARMINGDALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 750 ft
- FRONT END SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RACESTAR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FARMINGDALE BORO DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NJ BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MINGAMAHONE PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FREEWAY WAREHOUSE CORPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- ASHLAND INC C/O FREEWAY WAREHOUSE CORPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SPECIALTY RONDONT INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FREEWAY WAREHOUSE C/O TROY CHEMICALBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SOLENIS LLC C/O FREEWAY WAREHOUSE CORPBrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farmingdale'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 Farmingdale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farmingdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farmingdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farmingdale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Farmingdale — Superfund (25 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (1,193 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Farmingdale
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 Farmingdale average
Your land is one point inside Farmingdale
Everything above resolves to Farmingdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 333 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 Farmingdale Average
Farmingdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Farmingdale
- ●One soil character for all of Farmingdale
- ●Frost dates read at Farmingdale's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farmingdale's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farmingdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farmingdale, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farmingdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farmingdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farmingdale average
How we know this about Farmingdale
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 Farmingdale’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 Farmingdale
When does frost risk typically end in Farmingdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farmingdale typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Farmingdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farmingdale typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farmingdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farmingdale sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farmingdale?
The federal record around Farmingdale runs heavier than most — 1,941 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,193), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Farmingdale?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farmingdale's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farmingdale'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 Farmingdale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Farmingdale's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 333 acres it covers and 1,941 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farmingdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farmingdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,941 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farmingdale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farmingdale's boundary and the 333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farmingdale's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Farmingdalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Farmingdale's 333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monmouth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monmouth 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 Monmouth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farmingdale's 333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farmingdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 333 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Farmingdale-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyFarmingdale sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides