Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, in Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zones 3a-4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area lies within the Southeast Alaska / Inside Passage Panhandle — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area — the short answer
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska: USDA zones 3a-4b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 4.2M acres.
- USDA zones
- 3a-4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- ELFIN COVE station, 20 ft — 36 km away, 23 yr record
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- ELFIN COVE station, 20 ft — 36 km away, 23 yr record
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- ELFIN COVE station, 20 ft — 36 km away, 23 yr record
- County area
- 4.2M 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil in Hoonah-Angoon County
Across Hoonah-Angoon County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Tolstoi, McGilvery, and Kupreanof are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a bedrock surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
26%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
The USDA soil survey maps 15% of Hoonah-Angoon Census Area as well drained — but another 36% drains differently: 14% moderately well drained, 8% somewhat poorly drained.
Tolstoi is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then McGilvery (4%) and Kupreanof (4%).
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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
Each reading below is measured for Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area runs about pH 4.8–5.3, 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 26% of Hoonah-Angoon 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
MeasuredHoonah-Angoon Census Area runs about 237 days between hard freezes — 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
What Grows in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's own USDA zone 3a-4b and its own 237-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 Hoonah-Angoon 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 Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hoonah-Angoon County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hoonah-Angoon County — 304 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
Closest first, across Hoonah-Angoon County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KOHALA RANCH WATER CO.PFAS · 2.8 mi
- GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK BARTLETT COVEToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK BARTLETT COVESuperfund · 3.5 mi
- MV STELLERBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- ALASKA DOT & PF GUSTAVUS AIRPORTBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- ALASKA DOT & PF GUSTAVUS AIRPORTSuperfund · 6.6 mi
- ADOTPF - GustavusUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Former Glacier Bay Aviation LeaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- FAA GustavusUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Alaska ChiefMining · 7.9 mi
- Unnamed (west of Alaska Chief)Mining · 10.0 mi
- Southwest of Alaska ChiefMining · 10.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area.
Total Sites
304
across Hoonah-Angoon County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hoonah-Angoon County
Severity Distribution
across Hoonah-Angoon County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Mining runs higher than the national average — 285 sites across Hoonah-Angoon County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area average
Your land is one point inside Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
Everything above resolves to Hoonah-Angoon Census Area as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 4.2M 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area Average
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a-4b, averaged across Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- ●One soil character for all of Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- ●Frost dates read at Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's 3a-4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hoonah-Angoon Census Area averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hoonah-Angoon Census Area — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area average
How we know this about Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
When does frost risk typically end in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hoonah-Angoon Census Area sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 4, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area?
The federal record around Hoonah-Angoon Census Area runs heavier than most — 304 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (285), the nearest PFAS record about 2.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's scale — its 3a-4b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's own scale — its own ~237-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 304 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3a-4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hoonah-Angoon Census AreaUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 304 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 2.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's boundary and the 4,198,223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3a-4b and a ~237-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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area — the ~237 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area's 4,198,223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 304 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Arearead your own land →