Pompton Plains, 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pompton Plains, 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 Pompton Plains 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 Pompton Plains — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pompton Plains — the short answer
Pompton Plains, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7a is Pompton Plains's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pompton Plains's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pompton Plains
Each reading below is measured for Pompton Plains itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPompton Plains runs about 222 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
MeasuredPompton Plains 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 Pompton Plains is in
Pompton Plains sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pompton Plains's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Morris County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pompton Plains
Every plant below cleared Pompton Plains's own zone 7a and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pompton Plains?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Pompton Plains
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Pompton Plains, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pompton Plains
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pompton Plains. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TONY'S BLVD SERVICE CENTER LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NORTH BOULEVARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2600 ft
- TONYS BLVD SRVCE /POMPTON PLAINS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHELL SERVICE STATION 6810 0101Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHILTON MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CHILTON MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BROTHERS MERCEDES SERV & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MORRIS CO MUNICIPAL UTIL AUTHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PEQUANNOCK TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- POMPTON PLAINS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HILLVIEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SUNSET VALLEY GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pompton Plains'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 Pompton Plains.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pompton Plains
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pompton Plains
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pompton Plains, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pompton Plains — Superfund (75 sites) and PFAS (27 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Pompton Plains
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 Pompton Plains average
Your land is one point inside Pompton Plains
Everything above resolves to Pompton Plains 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 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 Pompton Plains Average
Pompton Plains Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pompton Plains
- ●One soil character for all of Pompton Plains
- ●Frost dates read at Pompton Plains's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pompton Plains's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pompton Plains
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pompton Plains, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pompton Plains averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pompton Plains — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pompton Plains average
How we know this about Pompton Plains
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 Pompton Plains’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 Pompton Plains
When does frost risk typically end in Pompton Plains?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pompton Plains typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Pompton Plains?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pompton Plains typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pompton Plains?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pompton Plains sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 25, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pompton Plains?
The federal record around Pompton Plains runs heavier than most — 3,053 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,811), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pompton Plains?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pompton Plains's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pompton Plains'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 Pompton Plains’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pompton Plains's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,315 acres it covers and 3,053 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pompton Plains's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pompton Plains's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 8 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,053 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pompton Plains, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pompton Plains's boundary and the 3,315 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pompton Plains sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pompton Plainslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pompton Plains's 3,315 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pompton Plains's 3,315 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pompton Plains you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,315 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pompton Plains-wide figureread your own land →