Bethel Census Area, in Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zones 3a-4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bethel Census Area holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bethel Census Area, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Census Area — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bethel Census Area — the short answer
Bethel Census Area, Alaska: USDA zones 3a-4b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 26.0M acres.
- USDA zones
- 3a-4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- BETHEL AIRPORT station, 107 ft — 92 km away, 30 yr record
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- BETHEL AIRPORT station, 107 ft — 92 km away, 30 yr record
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- BETHEL AIRPORT station, 107 ft — 92 km away, 30 yr record
- County area
- 26.0M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3a-4b is Bethel Census Area's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethel Census Area's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil in Bethel County
Across Bethel County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Buchia, Nagugun, and Goodnews are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
40%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bethel Census Area
The USDA soil survey maps 58% of Bethel Census Area as well drained — but another 39% drains differently: 21% poorly drained, 9% very poorly drained.
Buchia is the most extensive named soil at 1% of mapped acres, then Nagugun (1%) and Goodnews (1%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bethel Census Area
Each reading below is measured for Bethel Census Area itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bethel Census Area are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bethel Census Area runs about pH 4.8–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 40% of Bethel Census Area is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBethel Census Area runs about 142 days between hard freezes — 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
What Grows in Bethel Census Area
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bethel Census Area's own USDA zone 3a-4b and its own 142-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bethel Census Area?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bethel County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bethel County — 340 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Bethel Census Area carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bethel Census Area
Closest first, across Bethel County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tuluksak RiverMining · 4.3 mi
- Tuluksak River CopperMining · 6.4 mi
- Tuluksak River Placer MineMining · 6.8 mi
- Unnamed (south side of Tuluksak River)Mining · 7.3 mi
- Unnamed (lower Slate Creek)Mining · 7.4 mi
- Nyac AreaMining · 9.1 mi
- FirebearMining · 10.2 mi
- WallaceMining · 12.0 mi
- Bear CreekMining · 15.1 mi
- Bear Creek Placer Gold MineMining · 15.1 mi
- Fisher DomeMining · 16.0 mi
- Golden Gate Falls Copper OccurrenceMining · 29.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethel Census Area'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 Census Area.
Sources Checked
across Bethel County
Severity Distribution
across Bethel County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethel Census Area, two things run higher than the national average across Bethel County — Mining (200 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bethel Census Area
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 Census Area average
Your land is one point inside Bethel Census Area
Everything above resolves to Bethel Census Area as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 26.0M acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bethel Census Area Average
Bethel Census Area Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a-4b, averaged across Bethel Census Area
- ●One soil character for all of Bethel Census Area
- ●Frost dates read at Bethel Census Area's scale: May 10 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethel Census Area's 3a-4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bethel Census Area
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethel Census Area, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethel Census Area averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethel Census Area — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethel Census Area average
How we know this about Bethel Census Area
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bethel Census Area carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bethel Census Area
When does frost risk typically end in Bethel Census Area?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel Census Area 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.
How long is the growing season in Bethel Census Area?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethel Census Area 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 Census Area?
The federal record around Bethel Census Area runs heavier than most — 340 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (200), the nearest Mining record about 4.3 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 Bethel Census Area?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bethel Census Area 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 Census Area's scale — its 3a-4b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethel Census Area's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Alaska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bethel Census Area’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bethel Census Area's own scale — its own ~142-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 340 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethel Census Area's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3a-4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethel Census Area's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bethel Census AreaUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 340 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 4.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bethel Census Area's boundary and the 26,019,098 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3a-4b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bethel Census Area — the ~142 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethel Census Area's 26,019,098 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 340 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bethel Census Arearead your own land →