Paterson, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paterson, 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 Paterson 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 Paterson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Paterson — the short answer
Paterson, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Paterson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paterson's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paterson
Each reading below is measured for Paterson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaterson runs about 232 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
MeasuredPaterson 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 Paterson is in
Paterson sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paterson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Passaic County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Paterson
Every plant below cleared Paterson's own zone 7a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paterson?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Paterson
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Paterson, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paterson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paterson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUPER VALUE-PENNA AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #NJPAT1B01Brownfields · 250 ft
- 129 131 16TH AVENUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MADISON FOOD SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CRAFT TEXTILE PRINTING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 305 STRAIGHT STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SUPERIOR ENVELOPE & PRINTING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ADOLFO AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AJ SIRIS PRODUCTS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CITY HALL SERVICE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- US POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- POLICE MOTOR POOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paterson'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 Paterson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paterson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paterson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paterson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paterson — Superfund (143 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (440 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Paterson
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 Paterson average
Your land is one point inside Paterson
Everything above resolves to Paterson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Paterson Average
Paterson Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Paterson
- ●One soil character for all of Paterson
- ●Frost dates read at Paterson's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paterson's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paterson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paterson, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paterson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paterson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paterson average
How we know this about Paterson
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 Paterson’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 Paterson
When does frost risk typically end in Paterson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paterson typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Paterson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paterson typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paterson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paterson sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 31, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paterson?
The federal record around Paterson runs heavier than most — 6,343 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4,058), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Paterson?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paterson's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paterson'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 Paterson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paterson's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,384 acres it covers and 6,343 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paterson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paterson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 14 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,343 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paterson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paterson's boundary and the 5,384 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Paterson sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Patersonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paterson's 5,384 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Passaic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Passaic 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 Passaic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paterson's 5,384 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paterson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,384 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 Paterson-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyPaterson sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides