Wharton, New Jersey, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wharton, 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 Wharton 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 Wharton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wharton — the short answer
Wharton, New Jersey: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 6b is Wharton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wharton's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wharton
Each reading below is measured for Wharton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWharton runs about 197 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWharton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Wharton is in
Wharton sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Wharton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morris County.
What Grows in Wharton
Every plant below cleared Wharton's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Jersey profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wharton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Wharton
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Wharton, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wharton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wharton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 270353-- PW3Nitrate · 1800 ft
- AMERICAN MODERN METALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- US EPA REGION 2/DOVERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CORD CRAFTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- WHEEL O WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DAYCO CORP - RICHBOYNTON IND COMPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- US ARMY ARMAMENT RESEARCH & DEVEL CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- LASERLITHO INCSuperfund · 2400 ft
- WHARTON INTERSTATE COMMERCE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DIMENSIONAL MERCHADISING INC DMIBrownfields · 2400 ft
- NAZZARO CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- JIMMY'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wharton'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 Wharton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wharton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wharton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wharton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wharton — PFAS (28 sites) and Superfund (42 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wharton
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 Wharton average
Your land is one point inside Wharton
Everything above resolves to Wharton 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 Wharton Average
Wharton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wharton
- ●One soil character for all of Wharton
- ●Frost dates read at Wharton's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wharton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wharton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wharton, New Jersey — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wharton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wharton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wharton average
How we know this about Wharton
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 Wharton’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 Wharton
When does frost risk typically end in Wharton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wharton typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in Wharton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wharton typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wharton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wharton sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 11, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wharton?
The federal record around Wharton runs heavier than most — 2,109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (976), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Wharton?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wharton's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wharton'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 Wharton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wharton's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,331 acres it covers and 2,109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wharton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wharton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 25 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wharton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wharton's boundary and the 1,331 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wharton's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Whartonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wharton's 1,331 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morris 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 Morris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wharton's 1,331 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wharton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,331 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Wharton-wide figureread your own land →