Hoboken, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Hoboken, 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 Hoboken 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 Hoboken — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hoboken — the short answer
Hoboken, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 800 acres of city.
- 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)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 800 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 Hoboken's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hoboken's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hoboken
Each reading below is measured for Hoboken itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoboken runs about 255 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
MeasuredHoboken 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 Hoboken is in
Hoboken sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hoboken's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hudson County.
What Grows in Hoboken
Every plant below cleared Hoboken's own zone 7b and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hoboken?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Dec 1 — 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 Hoboken
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hoboken, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hoboken
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hoboken. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOBOKEN WATER UTILITYPFAS · 25 ft
- HOBOKEN SHIPYARDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- COUNTY OF HUDSON PARK AVE.VIADBrownfields · 1000 ft
- STEVENS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CARYS DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- 605 607 WILLOW AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WONDER LOFTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- UNION DRY DOCK & REPAIR COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 710 CLINTON STUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ACME #1744Brownfields · 1500 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2209Brownfields · 1500 ft
- MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE DIV GENERAL FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hoboken'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 Hoboken.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hoboken
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hoboken
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Hoboken
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 Hoboken average
Your land is one point inside Hoboken
Everything above resolves to Hoboken as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 800 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 city 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 Hoboken Average
Hoboken Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hoboken
- ●One soil character for all of Hoboken
- ●Frost dates read at Hoboken's scale: Mar 21 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hoboken's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hoboken
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hoboken, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hoboken averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hoboken — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hoboken average
How we know this about Hoboken
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hoboken’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Hoboken
When does frost risk typically end in Hoboken?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hoboken 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 Hoboken?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hoboken typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hoboken?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hoboken sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 17, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hoboken?
The federal record around Hoboken runs heavier than most — 18,670 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10,712), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hoboken?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hoboken's scale — its 7b band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hoboken'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 Hoboken’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hoboken's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 800 acres it covers and 18,670 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hoboken's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hoboken's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Dec 1 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18,670 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hoboken, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hoboken's boundary and the 800 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hoboken's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hobokenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hoboken's 800 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hudson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hudson 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 Hudson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hoboken's 800 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hoboken you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 800 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hoboken-wide figureread your own land →