Kodiak Island Borough, 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.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kodiak Island Borough holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kodiak Island Borough, 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 Kodiak Island Borough — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kodiak Island Borough — the short answer
Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska: USDA zones 3a-4b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 4.3M acres.
- USDA zones
- 3a-4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- KODIAK AIRPORT station, 16 ft — 85 km away, 30 yr record
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- KODIAK AIRPORT station, 16 ft — 85 km away, 30 yr record
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- KODIAK AIRPORT station, 16 ft — 85 km away, 30 yr record
- County area
- 4.3M 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 Kodiak Island Borough's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kodiak Island Borough's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil in Kodiak Island County
Across Kodiak Island County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols. The soil is generally well drained with a medial silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.3–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kodiak Island Borough
The USDA soil survey maps 86% of Kodiak Island Borough as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 6% somewhat poorly drained, 4% moderately well drained.
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 Kodiak Island Borough
Each reading below is measured for Kodiak Island Borough itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Kodiak Island Borough 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 Kodiak Island Borough runs about pH 4.3–5.0, 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
Season length
MeasuredKodiak Island Borough runs about 181 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredKodiak Island Borough sits in USDA hardiness zones 3a-4b.
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 Kodiak Island Borough
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kodiak Island Borough's own USDA zone 3a-4b and its own 181-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 Kodiak Island Borough?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Kodiak Island County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kodiak Island County — 224 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Kodiak Island County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kodiak Island Borough
Closest first, across Kodiak Island County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Saddle MountainMining · 5.8 mi
- ALASKA AIRLINES KODIAKBrownfields · 11.8 mi
- CalaverasMining · 12.7 mi
- CallaverasMining · 13.1 mi
- Miners PointMining · 14.1 mi
- Karluk ChromiteMining · 20.0 mi
- KODIAK WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 20.0 mi
- KIB - Karluk SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 21.4 mi
- Tanglefoot BayMining · 23.2 mi
- Blue Boy 1-2Mining · 24.2 mi
- Sonny Jim GroupMining · 26.8 mi
- Rambler GroupMining · 28.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kodiak Island Borough'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 Kodiak Island Borough.
Total Sites
224
across Kodiak Island County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Kodiak Island County
Severity Distribution
across Kodiak Island County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kodiak Island Borough, two things run higher than the national average across Kodiak Island County — Mining (66 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). 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.
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 Kodiak Island Borough
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 Kodiak Island Borough average
Your land is one point inside Kodiak Island Borough
Everything above resolves to Kodiak Island Borough as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 4.3M 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 Kodiak Island Borough Average
Kodiak Island Borough Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a-4b, averaged across Kodiak Island Borough
- ●One soil character for all of Kodiak Island Borough
- ●Frost dates read at Kodiak Island Borough's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kodiak Island Borough's 3a-4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kodiak Island Borough
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kodiak Island Borough averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kodiak Island Borough — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kodiak Island Borough average
How we know this about Kodiak Island Borough
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 Kodiak Island Borough carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kodiak Island Borough
When does frost risk typically end in Kodiak Island Borough?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kodiak Island Borough 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.
How long is the growing season in Kodiak Island Borough?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kodiak Island Borough 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 Kodiak Island Borough?
The federal record around Kodiak Island Borough is a meaningful one — 224 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Mining record about 5.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Kodiak Island Borough's scale — its 3a-4b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kodiak Island Borough'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 Kodiak Island Borough’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kodiak Island Borough's own scale — its own ~181-day span between 28°F freezes and 224 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kodiak Island Borough's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3a-4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kodiak Island Borough's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The dominant soil order and drainage mapped across Kodiak Island BoroughUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 224 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 5.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kodiak Island Borough's boundary and the 4,281,267 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3a-4b and a ~181-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 Kodiak Island Borough — the ~181 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 Kodiak Island Borough's 4,281,267 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 224 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 Kodiak Island Boroughread your own land →