Cordova, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cordova, 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 Cordova 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 Cordova — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cordova — the short answer
Cordova, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 39K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 39K 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 Chugach Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Cordova's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cordova's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cordova
Each reading below is measured for Cordova itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCordova runs about 219 days between hard freezes (read from Chugach Census Area, the closest normal to Cordova) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCordova 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 Cordova
Every plant below cleared Cordova's own zone 7b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cordova?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Cordova
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cordova. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Us and Mtn GroupMining · 1.1 mi
- EmeraldMining · 3.2 mi
- FAA CordovaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CC01500327BDDB2 003 30022 CORDOVA P U WW-1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- USDA USFS R10 CHUGACH NF CORDOVA FOREST WORK CBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- CC01500327BACC1 002Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- CC01500327BDBC1 001Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- CC01500327BDBC2 001Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WILSON CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Cordova Copper Co.Mining · 3.8 mi
- Cordova Community Medical Center - City HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Cordova Earth StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cordova'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 Cordova.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Cordova
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cordova
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cordova
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cordova, Mining runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Cordova. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Cordova
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 Cordova average
Your land is one point inside Cordova
Everything above resolves to Cordova as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 39K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chugach 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 Cordova Average
Cordova Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cordova
- ●One soil character for all of Cordova
- ●Frost dates read at Cordova's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cordova's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cordova
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cordova, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cordova averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cordova — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cordova average
How we know this about Cordova
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 Chugach 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 Cordova
When does frost risk typically end in Cordova?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cordova typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Cordova?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cordova typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cordova?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cordova sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 25, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cordova?
The federal record around Cordova is a meaningful one — 72 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (32), the nearest Mining record about 1.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Cordova?
From about Oct 9 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cordova's scale — its 7b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cordova'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 Cordova’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Cordova's own scale — the 39,265 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cordova's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cordova, the closest Mining record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cordova's boundary and the 39,265 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cordova has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chugach Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cordova's 39,265 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chugach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chugach 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 Chugach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cordova's 39,265 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cordova you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 39,265 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Cordova-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaCordova sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides