Port Colden, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Port Colden, 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 Port Colden 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 Port Colden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Colden — the short answer
Port Colden, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 324 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 324 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 6b is Port Colden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Colden's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Colden
Each reading below is measured for Port Colden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Colden runs about 207 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
MeasuredPort Colden sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Port Colden is in
Port Colden sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Colden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Port Colden
Every plant below cleared Port Colden's own zone 6b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Colden?
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 Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Port Colden
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Port Colden, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Port Colden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Colden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAREX POLYMER PROCESSING INC (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- RYMON FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BATHGATE'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WASHINGTON TWP BD OF EDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWNSHIP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GARRISON'S GULF (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MOBIL CHEMICAL COToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- 410021-- PW 5Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- EZIO U ROSSI & JEANNE R ROSSIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WASHBURN FIRE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WASHINGTON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MAXON CHEVROLET - OLDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Colden'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 Port Colden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Colden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Colden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Colden, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Port Colden. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Port Colden
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 Port Colden average
Your land is one point inside Port Colden
Everything above resolves to Port Colden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 324 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 Port Colden Average
Port Colden Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Port Colden
- ●One soil character for all of Port Colden
- ●Frost dates read at Port Colden's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Colden's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Colden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Colden, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Colden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Colden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Colden average
How we know this about Port Colden
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 Port Colden’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 Port Colden
When does frost risk typically end in Port Colden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Colden typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Port Colden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Colden typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Colden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Colden sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 18, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Colden?
The federal record around Port Colden is a meaningful one — 663 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (375), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Port Colden?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Colden's scale — its 6b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Colden'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 Port Colden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Port Colden's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 324 acres it covers and 663 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Colden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Colden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 1 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 663 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Colden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Colden's boundary and the 324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Colden's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Port Coldenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Colden's 324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Colden's 324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Colden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 324 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 Port Colden-wide figureread your own land →