Forked River, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Forked River, 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 Forked River 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 Forked River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Forked River — the short answer
Forked River, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- 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 Forked River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forked River's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forked River
Each reading below is measured for Forked River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForked River runs about 236 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
MeasuredForked River 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 Forked River is in
Forked River sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Forked River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ocean County.
What Grows in Forked River
Every plant below cleared Forked River's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forked River?
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 Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Forked River
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Forked River, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Forked River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forked River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARINA @ SOUTHWINDS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TOWNSEND'S MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RICKS MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- RIVER LIGHTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ALFA LAND COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 290701-- Forked R MarinaNitrate · 0.8 mi
- FORKED RIVER STATE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 291643-- State Game Farm/SEALEDNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 291192-- Dom/SEALEDNitrate · 1.0 mi
- YATCH BASIN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FORKED RIVER SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forked River'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 Forked River.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forked River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forked River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forked River, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Forked River — PFAS (10 sites) and Nitrate (206 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Forked River
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 Forked River average
Your land is one point inside Forked River
Everything above resolves to Forked River 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 Forked River Average
Forked River Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Forked River
- ●One soil character for all of Forked River
- ●Frost dates read at Forked River's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forked River's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forked River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forked River, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forked River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forked River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forked River average
How we know this about Forked River
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 Forked River’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 Forked River
When does frost risk typically end in Forked River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forked River typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Forked River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forked River typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forked River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forked River sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Nov 5, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forked River?
The federal record around Forked River is a meaningful one — 671 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (363), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Forked River?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forked River's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forked River'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 Forked River’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Forked River's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,750 acres it covers and 671 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forked River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forked River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 19 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 671 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forked River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forked River's boundary and the 1,750 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forked River's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Forked Riverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forked River's 1,750 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ocean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ocean 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 Ocean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forked River's 1,750 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forked River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,750 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Forked River-wide figureread your own land →
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