Totowa, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Totowa, 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 Totowa 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 Totowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Totowa — the short answer
Totowa, 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 Totowa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Totowa's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Totowa
Each reading below is measured for Totowa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTotowa 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
MeasuredTotowa 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 Totowa is in
Totowa sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Totowa's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Passaic County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Totowa
Every plant below cleared Totowa'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 Totowa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Totowa
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Totowa, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Totowa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Totowa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOTOWA W DEPTPFAS · 0 ft
- Totowa MineMining · 1200 ft
- SPONZILLI LANDSCAPING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JIMMEY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TOTOWA HEIGHTS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNGERER & COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- WINKS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NORTH JERSEY DEVELOPMENTAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TOTOWA CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- UNION PRECISION MANUFACTURING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PATERSON JAMES MBrownfields · 2300 ft
- NORTH JERSEY DEVELOPMENTAL CTRBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Totowa'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 Totowa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Totowa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Totowa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Totowa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Totowa — Superfund (161 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (420 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 Totowa
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 Totowa average
Your land is one point inside Totowa
Everything above resolves to Totowa 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 Totowa Average
Totowa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Totowa
- ●One soil character for all of Totowa
- ●Frost dates read at Totowa's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Totowa's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Totowa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Totowa, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Totowa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Totowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Totowa average
How we know this about Totowa
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 Totowa’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 Totowa
When does frost risk typically end in Totowa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Totowa 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 Totowa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Totowa 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 Totowa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Totowa 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 Totowa?
The federal record around Totowa runs heavier than most — 6,103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,883), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Totowa?
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 Totowa's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Totowa'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 Totowa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Totowa's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,560 acres it covers and 6,103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Totowa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Totowa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 8 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Totowa, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Totowa's boundary and the 2,560 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Totowa sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Totowalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Totowa's 2,560 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Passaic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Passaic 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 Passaic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Totowa's 2,560 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Totowa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,560 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Totowa-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Jersey
Wider growing context
What grows across New JerseyTotowa sits outside our named growing regions, so New Jersey as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides