Chena Ridge, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chena Ridge, 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 Chena Ridge 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 Chena Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chena Ridge — the short answer
Chena Ridge, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 7
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 23K 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3b is Chena Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chena Ridge's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chena Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Chena Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChena Ridge runs about 114 days between hard freezes (read from Fairbanks North Star Borough, the closest normal to Chena Ridge) — 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
MeasuredChena Ridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Chena Ridge
Plants matched to Chena Ridge's USDA zones 3b, 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 Chena Ridge?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 7 — 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 Chena Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chena Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FC00100229BADB1 001Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Fire Station #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Ester CreekMining · 2.8 mi
- ESTER CREEK SAND AND GRAVELBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Ester GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Ester Creek PlacerMining · 3.5 mi
- CHENA MARINA AIR SERVICESBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Ester Construction Company - Don CameronUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- FC00100208BBCB1 010 50338 ESTER COMMUNITY WELLNitrate · 3.7 mi
- FC00100208AACB1 015 52280 TED MAYNORNitrate · 3.9 mi
- Ready BullionMining · 3.9 mi
- Moose GulchMining · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chena Ridge'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 Chena Ridge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chena Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chena Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chena Ridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chena Ridge — Superfund (14 sites) and Mining (41 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Chena Ridge
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 Chena Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Chena Ridge
Everything above resolves to Chena Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 23K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fairbanks North Star 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 Chena Ridge Average
Chena Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Chena Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Chena Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Chena Ridge's scale: May 16 to Sep 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chena Ridge's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chena Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chena Ridge, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chena Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chena Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chena Ridge average
How we know this about Chena Ridge
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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Chena Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Chena Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chena Ridge typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Chena Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chena Ridge typically arrives around Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 24, so the watching starts about Aug 8 — about 114 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chena Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chena Ridge sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Aug 24, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chena Ridge?
The federal record around Chena Ridge runs heavier than most — 651 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (301), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Chena Ridge?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Chena Ridge 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Chena Ridge's scale — its 3b band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chena Ridge'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 Chena Ridge’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Chena Ridge's own scale — the 23,315 acres it covers and 651 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chena Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 651 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chena Ridge, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chena Ridge's boundary and the 23,315 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chena Ridge has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fairbanks North Star Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chena Ridge's 23,315 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chena Ridge's 23,315 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chena Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,315 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Chena Ridge-wide figureread your own land →