Mercerville, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Mercerville, 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 Mercerville 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 Mercerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mercerville — the short answer
Mercerville, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 7a is Mercerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mercerville's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mercerville
Each reading below is measured for Mercerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMercerville runs about 224 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
MeasuredMercerville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Mercerville is in
Mercerville sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mercerville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mercer County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mercerville
Every plant below cleared Mercerville's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mercerville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Mercerville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Mercerville, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mercerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mercerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHNERR BROTHERS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SHELL SERVICE STATION 138425Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6039Brownfields · 1200 ft
- EXXON STORE 3-6620Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MERCERVILLE FIRE CO NO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LUKOIL #57326Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TRI STATE PETRO TRENTON VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SIMCOX'S FLOWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PRATT ELECTRONICSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NJ BELL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 210076-- Domestic-1954Nitrate · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mercerville'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 Mercerville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mercerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mercerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mercerville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Mercerville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mercerville
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 Mercerville average
Your land is one point inside Mercerville
Everything above resolves to Mercerville 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 Mercerville Average
Mercerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mercerville
- ●One soil character for all of Mercerville
- ●Frost dates read at Mercerville's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mercerville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mercerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mercerville, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mercerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mercerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mercerville average
How we know this about Mercerville
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 Mercerville’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 Mercerville
When does frost risk typically end in Mercerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mercerville typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Mercerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mercerville typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mercerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mercerville sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 26, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mercerville?
The federal record around Mercerville runs heavier than most — 2,329 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,234), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Mercerville?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mercerville's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mercerville'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 Mercerville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mercerville's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,360 acres it covers and 2,329 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mercerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mercerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 9 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,329 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mercerville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mercerville's boundary and the 2,360 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mercerville sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mercervillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mercerville's 2,360 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mercerville's 2,360 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mercerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,360 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Mercerville-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyMercerville sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides