False Pass, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in False Pass, 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 False Pass 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 False Pass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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False Pass — the short answer
False Pass, Alaska: USDA zone 7a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- Aleutians East Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- Aleutians East Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- Aleutians East Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Aleutians East Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is False Pass's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against False Pass's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in False Pass
Each reading below is measured for False Pass itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFalse Pass runs about 164 days between hard freezes (read from Aleutians East Borough, the closest normal to False Pass) — 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
MeasuredFalse Pass sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 False Pass
Every plant below cleared False Pass's own zone 7a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in False Pass?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near False Pass
Closest first, within ~10 miles of False Pass. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UnnamedMining · 2.6 mi
- FALSE PASS SEAFOODS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
- TRIDENT SEAFOODS FALSE PASS SEAFOODSToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
Measured from False Pass'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 False Pass.
Total Sites
3
within ~10 miles of False Pass
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of False Pass
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in False Pass
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 False Pass average
Your land is one point inside False Pass
Everything above resolves to False Pass as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Aleutians East Borough’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 False Pass Average
False Pass Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across False Pass
- ●One soil character for all of False Pass
- ●Frost dates read at False Pass's scale: May 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not False Pass's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in False Pass
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in False Pass, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that False Pass averages can't show:
We read public map data around False Pass — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the False Pass average
How we know this about False Pass
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 Aleutians East 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 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 False Pass
When does frost risk typically end in False Pass?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in False Pass 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.
When is the first frost in False Pass?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in False Pass typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in False Pass?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, False Pass sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Oct 7, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in False Pass?
The federal record around False Pass is light — 3 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Toxics Release Inventory entries (2), the nearest Mining record about 2.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in False Pass?
From about Sep 21 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 Oct 21 (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 Oct 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at False Pass's scale — its 7a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of False Pass'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 False Pass’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at False Pass's own scale — the 16,045 acres it covers and 3 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- False Pass's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3 documented contamination sites on the federal record near False Pass, the closest Mining record about 2.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- False Pass's boundary and the 16,045 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — False Pass has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Aleutians East Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so False Pass's 16,045 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aleutians East County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aleutians East 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 Aleutians East County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among False Pass's 16,045 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of False Pass you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,045 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 2.6 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 False Pass-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaFalse Pass sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides