Secaucus, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Secaucus, 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 Secaucus 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 Secaucus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Secaucus — the short answer
Secaucus, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Secaucus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Secaucus's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Secaucus
Each reading below is measured for Secaucus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSecaucus runs about 251 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
MeasuredSecaucus 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 Secaucus is in
Secaucus sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Secaucus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hudson County.
What Grows in Secaucus
Every plant below cleared Secaucus's own zone 7b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Secaucus?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Secaucus
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Secaucus, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Secaucus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Secaucus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALVIN KLEIN (HARTZ MOUNTAIN)Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LIZ CLAIBORNEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- FAMILY REALTY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BOR AIR FREIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RUJAC TRUCKING CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SURPRISE CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SECAUCUS MUA WILLROY PUMP STATION PS#5Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WHITE ROSE FROZEN FOOD CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MORRIS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- VEECO SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Secaucus'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 Secaucus.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Secaucus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Secaucus
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Secaucus
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 Secaucus average
Your land is one point inside Secaucus
Everything above resolves to Secaucus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Secaucus Average
Secaucus Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Secaucus
- ●One soil character for all of Secaucus
- ●Frost dates read at Secaucus's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Secaucus's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Secaucus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Secaucus, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Secaucus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Secaucus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Secaucus average
How we know this about Secaucus
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 Secaucus’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 Secaucus
When does frost risk typically end in Secaucus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Secaucus typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Secaucus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Secaucus typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Secaucus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Secaucus sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 14, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Secaucus?
The federal record around Secaucus runs heavier than most — 16,461 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9,572), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Secaucus?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Secaucus's scale — its 7b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Secaucus'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 Secaucus’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Secaucus's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,729 acres it covers and 16,461 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Secaucus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Secaucus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 28 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16,461 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Secaucus, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Secaucus's boundary and the 3,729 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Secaucus's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Secaucuslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Secaucus's 3,729 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hudson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hudson 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 Hudson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Secaucus's 3,729 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Secaucus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,729 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 Secaucus-wide figureread your own land →