Ester, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ester, 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 Ester 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 Ester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ester — the short answer
Ester, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 41K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 7
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 41K 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is Ester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ester's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ester
Each reading below is measured for Ester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEster runs about 114 days between hard freezes (read from Fairbanks North Star Borough, the closest normal to Ester) — 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEster sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Ester
Plants matched to Ester's USDA zones 4a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ester?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Ester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ester Dome AreaMining · 0.7 mi
- Unnamed (southeast Ester Dome)Mining · 0.8 mi
- VuyovichMining · 0.8 mi
- Blue BonanzaMining · 0.8 mi
- St. PaulMining · 1.0 mi
- PrometheusMining · 1.0 mi
- Wandering JewMining · 1.1 mi
- Jennie C.Mining · 1.1 mi
- StibniteMining · 1.1 mi
- Barker and McqueenMining · 1.2 mi
- CottonblossomMining · 1.2 mi
- ClipperMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ester'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 Ester.
Total Sites
607
within ~10 miles of Ester
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ester, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ester — Superfund (12 sites) and Mining (42 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Ester
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 Ester average
Your land is one point inside Ester
Everything above resolves to Ester as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 41K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fairbanks North Star 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 Ester Average
Ester Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Ester
- ●One soil character for all of Ester
- ●Frost dates read at Ester's scale: May 16 to Sep 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ester's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ester, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ester average
How we know this about Ester
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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Ester
When does frost risk typically end in Ester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ester typically lands around May 16, 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 Jun 6.
When is the first frost in Ester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ester typically arrives around Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 24, so the watching starts about Aug 8 — about 114 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ester sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Aug 24, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ester?
The federal record around Ester runs heavier than most — 607 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (278), the nearest Mining record about 0.7 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 Ester?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Ester 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Ester's scale — its 4a band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ester'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 Ester’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Ester's own scale — the 41,111 acres it covers and 607 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 607 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ester, the closest Mining record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ester's boundary and the 41,111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ester has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fairbanks North Star Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ester's 41,111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairbanks North Star County
- The candidate plant list — Alaska's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Alaska
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ester's 41,111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 41,111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.7 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 Ester-wide figureread your own land →