Fortescue, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fortescue, 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 Fortescue 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 Fortescue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fortescue — the short answer
Fortescue, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 186 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 Fortescue's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fortescue's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fortescue
Each reading below is measured for Fortescue itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFortescue runs about 246 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
MeasuredFortescue 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 Fortescue is in
Fortescue sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fortescue's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cumberland County is mostly Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fortescue
Every plant below cleared Fortescue's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fortescue?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Fortescue
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Fortescue, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fortescue
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fortescue. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 110051-- Discontinued 3Nitrate · 1000 ft
- DOWNS BAIT HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORTESCUE PAVILION MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HOWIE & JO'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- 110054-- BeachNitrate · 4.0 mi
- WILSON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- DOWNE TWP MUNICIPAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- CAPTAINS & BOATOWNERS ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- HIGBEE'S MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BARNETT'S CONVENIANCE STORE & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- POLLINOS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- PEPPER CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fortescue'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 Fortescue.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Fortescue
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fortescue
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fortescue
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fortescue, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Fortescue. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fortescue
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 Fortescue average
Your land is one point inside Fortescue
Everything above resolves to Fortescue as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 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 Fortescue Average
Fortescue Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fortescue
- ●One soil character for all of Fortescue
- ●Frost dates read at Fortescue's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fortescue's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fortescue
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fortescue, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fortescue averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fortescue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fortescue average
How we know this about Fortescue
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 Fortescue’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 Fortescue
When does frost risk typically end in Fortescue?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fortescue typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Fortescue?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fortescue typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fortescue?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fortescue sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 8, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fortescue?
The federal record around Fortescue shows 98 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fortescue?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fortescue's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fortescue'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 Fortescue’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fortescue's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fortescue's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fortescue's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 22 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fortescue, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fortescue's boundary and the 186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fortescue sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fortescuelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fortescue's 186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cumberland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cumberland 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 Cumberland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fortescue's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fortescue you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Fortescue-wide figureread your own land →