What Grows in Allakaket, Alaska

USDA Zones 1a · 10K acres

Allakaket, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 1a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.

A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.

Score your parcel · free

Even in Allakaket, 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 Allakaket 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 Allakaket — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

No card required · your full report in seconds

Allakaket — the short answer

Allakaket, Alaska: USDA zone 1a, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.

USDA zone
1a
USDA PHZM 2023
Last hard freeze (28°F)
May 15
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
First hard freeze (28°F)
Sep 10
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
Days between freezes
~118
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
City area
10K acres
US Census TIGER/Line 2025

Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.

Hardiness Zone Range

1a1a
3a (Cold)13b (Hot)

Zone 1a is Allakaket's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Allakaket's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.

Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.

What this means for growing in Allakaket

Each reading below is measured for Allakaket itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.

Season length

From county records

Allakaket runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, the closest normal to Allakaket) — a short growing season.

Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.

Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.

NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals

Winter hardiness

Measured

Allakaket sits in USDA hardiness zone 1a.

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

What Grows in Allakaket

Plants matched to Allakaket's USDA zones 1a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.

Is it too late to plant in Allakaket?

Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.

Environmental Check

No contamination sources found near Allakaket

We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.

Your land is one point inside Allakaket

Everything above resolves to Allakaket as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Allakaket Average

Allakaket Average

  • USDA Zones 1a, averaged across Allakaket
  • One soil character for all of Allakaket
  • Frost dates read at Allakaket's scale: May 15 to Sep 10

YOUR Parcel

  • Your exact zone, not Allakaket's 1a
  • Your SSURGO soil type & pH
  • Your sun exposure, cast in 3D

See MY Growing Report

Free Report

Read your specific parcel in Allakaket

Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Allakaket, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.

Three things about your lot that Allakaket averages can't show:

Your soil pHYour frost-free days — Allakaket averages 118Your sun & shade

We read public map data around Allakaket — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

25+ data sources read at your address, not the Allakaket average

How we know this about Allakaket

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 Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Allakaket

When does frost risk typically end in Allakaket?

The last hard freeze (28°F) in Allakaket typically lands around May 15, 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 Jun 5.

When is the first frost in Allakaket?

The first hard freeze (28°F) in Allakaket typically arrives around Sep 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 27, so the watching starts about Aug 11 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.

How long is the growing season in Allakaket?

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Allakaket sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Sep 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Aug 27, about 83 days.

Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Allakaket?

No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around Allakaket. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.

How do gardeners stretch the season in Allakaket?

With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Allakaket rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.

Everything above is measured at Allakaket's scale — its 1a band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Allakaket'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 Allakaket’s own scale

2 of the readings below were taken at Allakaket's own scale — the 10,130 acres it covers; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.

Measured here

  • Allakaket's own USDA hardiness band, zones 1aUSDA PHZM 2023
  • Allakaket's boundary and the 10,130 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025

Inherited from a wider read

  • The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Allakaket has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area
  • Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Allakaket's 10,130 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yukon-Koyukuk County
  • The candidate plant list — Alaska's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Alaska
  • Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yukon-Koyukuk County
  • The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
  • Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Yukon-Koyukuk County

What this page can’t tell you

  • The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Allakaket's 10,130 acreswhy one lot differs from the next
  • Which side of Allakaket you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,130 acresreading your own microclimate
  • How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly
  • 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 Allakaket-wide figureread your own land
The next step finer is your own address