Bethel, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bethel, 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 Bethel 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 Bethel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethel — the short answer
Bethel, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 29K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 29K 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 Bethel Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is Bethel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethel's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethel
Each reading below is measured for Bethel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBethel runs about 142 days between hard freezes (read from Bethel Census Area, the closest normal to Bethel) — 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
MeasuredBethel sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Bethel
Every plant below cleared Bethel's own zone 4a and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethel?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Bethel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BETHEL POWER PLANTBrownfields · 2200 ft
- YUKON-KUSKOKWIM DELTA REGIONAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ADHHS - Bethel Youth FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ADOC - Yukon-Kuskokwim Correctional CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- USDHHS PHS FORMER HOSPITAL SITEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BETHEL AIRPORTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BETHEL AIRPORTSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- SB00807117ABCD1001 80003 USPHS BETHELNitrate · 0.7 mi
- SB00807108DABB1 001Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- BETHEL CITY SHOP AND LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SB00807109CBBD1 006Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- LOWER KUSKOKWIM SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethel'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 Bethel.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Bethel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethel, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Bethel. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bethel
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 Bethel average
Your land is one point inside Bethel
Everything above resolves to Bethel as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 29K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bethel 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 Bethel Average
Bethel Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Bethel
- ●One soil character for all of Bethel
- ●Frost dates read at Bethel's scale: May 10 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethel's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethel, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethel average
How we know this about Bethel
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 Bethel 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 Bethel
When does frost risk typically end in Bethel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Bethel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethel sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 15, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethel?
The federal record around Bethel is a meaningful one — 50 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Bethel?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bethel 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bethel's scale — its 4a band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethel'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 Bethel’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Bethel's own scale — the 28,845 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethel, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethel's boundary and the 28,845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bethel has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bethel Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethel's 28,845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bethel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bethel 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 Bethel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethel's 28,845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,845 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Bethel-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaBethel sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides