Long Branch, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Long Branch, 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 Long Branch 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 Long Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Long Branch — the short answer
Long Branch, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Long Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Branch's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Branch
Each reading below is measured for Long Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Branch runs about 245 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
MeasuredLong Branch 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 Long Branch is in
Long Branch sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Long Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monmouth County.
What Grows in Long Branch
Every plant below cleared Long Branch's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Branch?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Long Branch
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Long Branch, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Long Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRANCH HOUSE FOODS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SHORE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CHRIST OF KING PARISHUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THIRD AVE BAKERY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALGREENS 19996Brownfields · 800 ft
- DIAMOND POINT MANAGEMENT ASSOC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BALPANZA BAKERY (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LOWDEN GARDENS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MONMOUTH MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MONMOUTH MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- B&B BEVERAGE COBrownfields · 1900 ft
- B & BEVERAGE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Branch'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 Long Branch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Long Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Branch, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 847 sites within ~10 miles of Long Branch. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Long Branch
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 Long Branch average
Your land is one point inside Long Branch
Everything above resolves to Long Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Long Branch Average
Long Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Long Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Long Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Long Branch's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Branch's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Branch, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Branch average
How we know this about Long Branch
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 Long Branch’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 Long Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Long Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Branch typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Long Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Branch typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Branch sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 10, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Branch?
The federal record around Long Branch is a meaningful one — 1,164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (847), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Long Branch?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Long Branch's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Branch'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 Long Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Long Branch's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,279 acres it covers and 1,164 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 24 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Branch's boundary and the 3,279 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Long Branch's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Long Branchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Branch's 3,279 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 Long Branch's 3,279 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,279 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Long Branch-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyLong Branch sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides