Perth Amboy, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Perth Amboy, 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 Perth Amboy 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 Perth Amboy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Perth Amboy — the short answer
Perth Amboy, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 Perth Amboy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perth Amboy's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Perth Amboy
Each reading below is measured for Perth Amboy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPerth Amboy runs about 238 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
MeasuredPerth Amboy 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 Perth Amboy is in
Perth Amboy sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Perth Amboy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Middlesex County.
What Grows in Perth Amboy
Every plant below cleared Perth Amboy's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perth Amboy?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Perth Amboy
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Perth Amboy, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Perth Amboy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perth Amboy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLEMENT FUEL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FEDERAL SEABOARD TERRACOTTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- STATE INSULATION CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PERTH AMBOY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AMBOY CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JERSEY GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GULF SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EDWARD J PATTEN SCHOOL- FORM JE HURLEY LUM COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHIVA GASOLINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ALPINE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MONOGRAM CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TED'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Perth Amboy'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 Perth Amboy.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Perth Amboy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perth Amboy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Perth Amboy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Perth Amboy — Superfund (93 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (295 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Perth Amboy
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 Perth Amboy average
Your land is one point inside Perth Amboy
Everything above resolves to Perth Amboy 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 Perth Amboy Average
Perth Amboy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Perth Amboy
- ●One soil character for all of Perth Amboy
- ●Frost dates read at Perth Amboy's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perth Amboy's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perth Amboy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perth Amboy, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perth Amboy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perth Amboy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perth Amboy average
How we know this about Perth Amboy
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 Perth Amboy’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 Perth Amboy
When does frost risk typically end in Perth Amboy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perth Amboy typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Perth Amboy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perth Amboy typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Perth Amboy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perth Amboy sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 5, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Perth Amboy?
The federal record around Perth Amboy runs heavier than most — 4,389 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,398), 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 Perth Amboy?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Perth Amboy's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perth Amboy'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 Perth Amboy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Perth Amboy's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,984 acres it covers and 4,389 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perth Amboy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Perth Amboy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 19 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,389 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perth Amboy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perth Amboy's boundary and the 2,984 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Perth Amboy's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Perth Amboylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Perth Amboy's 2,984 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Middlesex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Middlesex 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 Middlesex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Perth Amboy's 2,984 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perth Amboy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,984 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 Perth Amboy-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyPerth Amboy sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides