Beluga, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beluga, 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 Beluga 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 Beluga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beluga — the short answer
Beluga, Alaska: USDA zone 5a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 63K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 63K 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 Kenai Peninsula Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Beluga's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beluga's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beluga
Each reading below is measured for Beluga itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBeluga runs about 148 days between hard freezes (read from Kenai Peninsula Borough, the closest normal to Beluga) — 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
MeasuredBeluga sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Beluga
Every plant below cleared Beluga's own zone 5a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beluga?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Beluga
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beluga. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THREE MILE CREEK SERVICES INC.Brownfields · 4.6 mi
- BELUGA LANDFILLBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- BELUGA RIVER POWER PLANTBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- HARVEST ALASKA - BELUGA STATIONBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- SB01101101ADCD1 002Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- KENAI BOROUGH TYONEK LDFLBrownfields · 8.5 mi
- SB01101101DCAA1 001Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- E.L. Bartlett Elementary/high SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- Trading Bay Production FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- Granite Point Production Facil.Underground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
Measured from Beluga'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 Beluga.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beluga
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Beluga
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 Beluga average
Your land is one point inside Beluga
Everything above resolves to Beluga as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 63K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kenai Peninsula Borough’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Beluga Average
Beluga Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Beluga
- ●One soil character for all of Beluga
- ●Frost dates read at Beluga's scale: May 2 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beluga's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beluga
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beluga, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beluga averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beluga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beluga average
How we know this about Beluga
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 Kenai Peninsula Borough’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 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 Beluga
When does frost risk typically end in Beluga?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beluga typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Beluga?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beluga typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beluga?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beluga sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 13, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beluga?
The federal record around Beluga is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (6), the nearest Brownfields record about 4.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Beluga?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Beluga 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 2 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Beluga's scale — its 5a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beluga'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 Beluga’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Beluga's own scale — the 63,442 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beluga's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beluga, the closest Brownfields record about 4.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beluga's boundary and the 63,442 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Beluga has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kenai Peninsula Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beluga's 63,442 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kenai Peninsula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kenai Peninsula 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 Kenai Peninsula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beluga's 63,442 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beluga you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 63,442 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 4.6 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 Beluga-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaBeluga sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides