Chiniak, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chiniak, 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 Chiniak 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 Chiniak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chiniak — the short answer
Chiniak, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- Kodiak Island Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- Kodiak Island Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- Kodiak Island Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 25K 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 Kodiak Island Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Chiniak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chiniak's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chiniak
Each reading below is measured for Chiniak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChiniak runs about 181 days between hard freezes (read from Kodiak Island Borough, the closest normal to Chiniak) — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChiniak sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Chiniak
Every plant below cleared Chiniak's own zone 7b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chiniak?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Chiniak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chiniak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kalsin Bay Inn, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Loran Station Narrow CapeUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- ALASKA AEROSPACE CORPORATION PACIFIC SPACEPORT COMPLEXBrownfields · 9.9 mi
Measured from Chiniak'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 Chiniak.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chiniak
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Chiniak
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 Chiniak average
Your land is one point inside Chiniak
Everything above resolves to Chiniak as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 25K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kodiak Island 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 Chiniak Average
Chiniak Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Chiniak
- ●One soil character for all of Chiniak
- ●Frost dates read at Chiniak's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chiniak's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chiniak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chiniak, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chiniak averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chiniak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chiniak average
How we know this about Chiniak
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 Kodiak Island 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 Chiniak
When does frost risk typically end in Chiniak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chiniak typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Chiniak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chiniak typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chiniak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chiniak sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 3, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chiniak?
The federal record around Chiniak is light — 3 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Chiniak?
From about Sep 17 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chiniak's scale — its 7b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chiniak'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 Chiniak’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Chiniak's own scale — the 24,784 acres it covers and 3 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chiniak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chiniak, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chiniak's boundary and the 24,784 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chiniak has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kodiak Island Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chiniak's 24,784 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kodiak Island County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kodiak Island 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 Kodiak Island County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chiniak's 24,784 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chiniak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 24,784 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.1 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 Chiniak-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaChiniak sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides