Chignik Lake, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Chignik Lake, 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 Chignik Lake 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 Chignik Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chignik Lake — the short answer
Chignik Lake, Alaska: USDA zone 6b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- Lake and Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- Lake and Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- Lake and Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Lake and Peninsula Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Chignik Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chignik Lake's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chignik Lake
Each reading below is measured for Chignik Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChignik Lake runs about 135 days between hard freezes (read from Lake and Peninsula Borough, the closest normal to Chignik Lake) — 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
MeasuredChignik Lake 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
What Grows in Chignik Lake
Every plant below cleared Chignik Lake's own zone 6b and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chignik Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — 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 Chignik Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chignik Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Home CreekMining · 4.1 mi
- Unnamed (Between Portage Bay and Chignik Lake)Mining · 6.2 mi
- Bearskin GulchMining · 6.3 mi
- Unnamed (near the head of Portage Bay)Mining · 8.2 mi
- Windy BayMining · 9.0 mi
- Mallard Duck BayMining · 9.3 mi
Measured from Chignik Lake'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 Chignik Lake.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Chignik Lake
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chignik Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Chignik Lake
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 Chignik Lake average
Your land is one point inside Chignik Lake
Everything above resolves to Chignik Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake and 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 Chignik Lake Average
Chignik Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Chignik Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Chignik Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Chignik Lake's scale: May 13 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chignik Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chignik Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chignik Lake, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chignik Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chignik Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chignik Lake average
How we know this about Chignik Lake
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 Lake and 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 Chignik Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Chignik Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chignik Lake typically lands around May 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Chignik Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chignik Lake typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chignik Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chignik Lake sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 11, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chignik Lake?
The federal record around Chignik Lake is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (6), the nearest Mining record about 4.1 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 Chignik Lake?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Chignik Lake 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Chignik Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chignik Lake'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 Chignik Lake’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Chignik Lake's own scale — the 7,962 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chignik Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chignik Lake, the closest Mining record about 4.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chignik Lake's boundary and the 7,962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chignik Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake and Peninsula Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chignik Lake's 7,962 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake and Peninsula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake and 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 Lake and Peninsula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chignik Lake's 7,962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chignik Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,962 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 4.1 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 Chignik Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaChignik Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides