Hopatcong, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hopatcong, 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 Hopatcong 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 Hopatcong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hopatcong — the short answer
Hopatcong, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 6b is Hopatcong's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hopatcong's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hopatcong
Each reading below is measured for Hopatcong itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHopatcong runs about 190 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHopatcong sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Hopatcong is in
Hopatcong sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Hopatcong's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sussex County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hopatcong
Every plant below cleared Hopatcong's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hopatcong?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Hopatcong
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Hopatcong, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hopatcong
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hopatcong. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE VILLAGE MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOPATCONG AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOPATCONG GULF 61934Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOPATCONG WATER DEPTPFAS · 0.9 mi
- DOVER ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP INC.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- MAROTTA'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOPATCONG WATER DEPT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HOPATCONG BOROUGH DPW GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WALGREENS 17742Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- 38 HOPATCHUNG REALTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SHELL SERVICE STATION #139393Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WAYNES MARINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hopatcong'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 Hopatcong.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hopatcong
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hopatcong
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hopatcong, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hopatcong — PFAS (22 sites) and Nitrate (580 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Hopatcong
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 Hopatcong average
Your land is one point inside Hopatcong
Everything above resolves to Hopatcong as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Hopatcong Average
Hopatcong Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hopatcong
- ●One soil character for all of Hopatcong
- ●Frost dates read at Hopatcong's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hopatcong's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hopatcong
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hopatcong, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hopatcong averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hopatcong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hopatcong average
How we know this about Hopatcong
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 Hopatcong’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 Hopatcong
When does frost risk typically end in Hopatcong?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hopatcong typically lands around Apr 15, 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Hopatcong?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hopatcong typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hopatcong?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hopatcong sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 8, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hopatcong?
The federal record around Hopatcong runs heavier than most — 1,615 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (727), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Hopatcong?
From about Sep 22 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 Oct 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 Oct 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hopatcong's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hopatcong'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 Hopatcong’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hopatcong's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,964 acres it covers and 1,615 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hopatcong's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hopatcong's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 22 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,615 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hopatcong, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hopatcong's boundary and the 6,964 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hopatcong sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hopatconglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hopatcong's 6,964 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sussex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sussex 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 Sussex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hopatcong's 6,964 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hopatcong you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,964 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Hopatcong-wide figureread your own land →