Raritan, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Raritan, 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 Raritan 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 Raritan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Raritan — the short answer
Raritan, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Raritan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Raritan's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Raritan
Each reading below is measured for Raritan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRaritan runs about 211 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
MeasuredRaritan 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 Raritan is in
Raritan sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Raritan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Raritan
Every plant below cleared Raritan's own zone 7a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Raritan?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Raritan
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Raritan, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Raritan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Raritan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH AMERICAN PRODUCTS ACQUISITIONSuperfund · 900 ft
- ROCHE-BIOMEDICAL LABORATORIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE BLOMED LABUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ORTHO-CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICSBrownfields · 950 ft
- ORTHO-CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICSToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- NJ TRANSIT AUTH RAIL OPERATIONS RARITAN RAIL YARDBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ORTHO-MCNEIL PHARMACEUTICAL CORPBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ORTHO-MCNEIL PHARMACEUTICAL CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- ORTHO PHARMACEUTICAL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ORTHO DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NORTH AMERICAN PRODUCTS ACQUISITIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LEGEND BIOTECHBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Raritan'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 Raritan.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Raritan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Raritan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Raritan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Raritan — Superfund (41 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (104 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 Raritan
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 Raritan average
Your land is one point inside Raritan
Everything above resolves to Raritan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Raritan Average
Raritan Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Raritan
- ●One soil character for all of Raritan
- ●Frost dates read at Raritan's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Raritan's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Raritan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Raritan, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Raritan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Raritan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Raritan average
How we know this about Raritan
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 Raritan’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 Raritan
When does frost risk typically end in Raritan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Raritan typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Raritan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Raritan typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Raritan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Raritan sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Raritan?
The federal record around Raritan runs heavier than most — 1,398 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (781), the nearest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Raritan?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Raritan's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Raritan'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 Raritan’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Raritan's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,275 acres it covers and 1,398 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Raritan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Raritan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,398 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Raritan, the closest Superfund record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Raritan's boundary and the 1,275 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Raritan's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Raritanlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Raritan's 1,275 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Raritan's 1,275 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Raritan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,275 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Raritan-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyRaritan sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides