Somers Point, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Somers Point, 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 Somers Point 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 Somers Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Somers Point — the short answer
Somers Point, New Jersey: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- 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 Somers Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somers Point's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Somers Point
Each reading below is measured for Somers Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSomers Point runs about 232 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
MeasuredSomers Point 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 Somers Point is in
Somers Point sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Somers Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Atlantic County.
What Grows in Somers Point
Every plant below cleared Somers Point's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Somers Point?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Somers Point
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Somers Point, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Somers Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Somers Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 010582-- PW 5Nitrate · 600 ft
- DOBBS AVE PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SOMERS POINT VO 1 RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ATLANTIC FUELS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LAUREL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SUNOCO 0004-6227Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GREENWAY COMPUTERS LLCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- JORDAN ROAD SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GREATE BAY GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NJ AMERICAN WATER - ATLANTIC COUNTYPFAS · 2400 ft
- FAIR WAY FUEL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somers Point'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 Somers Point.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Somers Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Somers Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somers Point, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Somers Point — Superfund (15 sites) and PFAS (9 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 Somers Point
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 Somers Point average
Your land is one point inside Somers Point
Everything above resolves to Somers Point 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 Somers Point Average
Somers Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Somers Point
- ●One soil character for all of Somers Point
- ●Frost dates read at Somers Point's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somers Point's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Somers Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somers Point, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somers Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somers Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somers Point average
How we know this about Somers Point
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 Somers Point’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 Somers Point
When does frost risk typically end in Somers Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somers Point typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Somers Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Somers Point typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Somers Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somers Point sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Nov 3, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somers Point?
The federal record around Somers Point runs heavier than most — 923 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (563), the nearest Nitrate 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 Somers Point?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Somers Point's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somers Point'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 Somers Point’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Somers Point's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,566 acres it covers and 923 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somers Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Somers Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 17 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 923 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Somers Point, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Somers Point's boundary and the 2,566 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Somers Point's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Somers Pointlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Somers Point's 2,566 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atlantic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atlantic 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 Atlantic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Somers Point's 2,566 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Somers Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,566 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Somers Point-wide figureread your own land →
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