Upper Montclair, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Upper Montclair, 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 Upper Montclair 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 Upper Montclair — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Upper Montclair — the short answer
Upper Montclair, New Jersey: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Upper Montclair's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upper Montclair's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Upper Montclair
Each reading below is measured for Upper Montclair itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUpper Montclair runs about 227 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
MeasuredUpper Montclair 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 Upper Montclair is in
Upper Montclair sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Upper Montclair's own centroid rather than borrowed from Essex County.
What Grows in Upper Montclair
Every plant below cleared Upper Montclair's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Upper Montclair?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 12 — 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 Upper Montclair
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Upper Montclair, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Upper Montclair
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Upper Montclair. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONTCLAIR WATER BUREAUPFAS · 850 ft
- MONTCLAIR TWP BD OF ED MOUNT HEBRON SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BELLEVUE ESSO SERVICENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- F GONZALEZ INC T/A SCHAIT & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCHAIT AND SON DRY CLEANERS, INC.Superfund · 1400 ft
- MONTCLAIR SPARTAN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FOREIGN AID LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NORGE VILLAGE LAUNDROMAT AND CLEANERSSuperfund · 1700 ft
- MOLINE KRONBERG CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MOLINE KRONBERG CLEANERSSuperfund · 1700 ft
- KINGS 3633Brownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upper Montclair'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 Upper Montclair.
Total Sites
7,949
within ~10 miles of Upper Montclair
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
208 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Upper Montclair
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Upper Montclair
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Upper Montclair, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Upper Montclair — Superfund (208 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (603 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Upper Montclair
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 Upper Montclair average
Your land is one point inside Upper Montclair
Everything above resolves to Upper Montclair as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Upper Montclair Average
Upper Montclair Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Upper Montclair
- ●One soil character for all of Upper Montclair
- ●Frost dates read at Upper Montclair's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upper Montclair's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Upper Montclair
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upper Montclair, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upper Montclair averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upper Montclair — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upper Montclair average
How we know this about Upper Montclair
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 Upper Montclair’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 Upper Montclair
When does frost risk typically end in Upper Montclair?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upper Montclair 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 Upper Montclair?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Upper Montclair typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Upper Montclair?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upper Montclair sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 29, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upper Montclair?
The federal record around Upper Montclair runs heavier than most — 7,949 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5,053), the nearest PFAS 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 Upper Montclair?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Upper Montclair's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upper Montclair'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 Upper Montclair’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Upper Montclair's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,523 acres it covers and 7,949 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upper Montclair's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Upper Montclair's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 12 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7,949 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Upper Montclair, the closest PFAS record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Upper Montclair's boundary and the 1,523 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Upper Montclair's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Upper Montclairlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Upper Montclair's 1,523 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Upper Montclair's 1,523 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Upper Montclair you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,523 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Upper Montclair-wide figureread your own land →