Farmers Loop, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Farmers Loop, 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 Farmers Loop 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 Farmers Loop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Farmers Loop — the short answer
Farmers Loop, Alaska: USDA zone 3a, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- 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
- 14K 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 3a is Farmers Loop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farmers Loop's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farmers Loop
Each reading below is measured for Farmers Loop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFarmers Loop runs about 114 days between hard freezes (read from Fairbanks North Star Borough, the closest normal to Farmers Loop) — 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
MeasuredFarmers Loop sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a.
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 Farmers Loop
Plants matched to Farmers Loop's USDA zones 3a, 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 Farmers Loop?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Farmers Loop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farmers Loop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FB00100114DCCD1 001Nitrate · 1300 ft
- FB00100123ADDA1 001Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- FB00100124BCCB1 009 50193 CLEGG TRACTNitrate · 0.9 mi
- FNSB - Steese VFD Station #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FB00100126BBDA1 001Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- FB00100124DBCC1 005Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- FB00100113DDBC1 001Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- FB00100113DDBC2 001 MCGRATH WELLNitrate · 1.4 mi
- USDOD DLA FAIRBANKS DEFENSE FUEL SUPPORT PTSuperfund · 1.9 mi
- FAA Chandalar LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Alaskan BackhoeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FA00100130BAAD1 010Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farmers Loop'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 Farmers Loop.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farmers Loop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farmers Loop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farmers Loop, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Farmers Loop — Nitrate (576 sites) and Superfund (20 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Farmers Loop
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 Farmers Loop average
Your land is one point inside Farmers Loop
Everything above resolves to Farmers Loop as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 14K 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 Farmers Loop Average
Farmers Loop Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Farmers Loop
- ●One soil character for all of Farmers Loop
- ●Frost dates read at Farmers Loop's scale: May 16 to Sep 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farmers Loop's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farmers Loop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farmers Loop, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farmers Loop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farmers Loop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farmers Loop average
How we know this about Farmers Loop
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 Farmers Loop
When does frost risk typically end in Farmers Loop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farmers Loop 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 Farmers Loop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farmers Loop 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 Farmers Loop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farmers Loop 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 Farmers Loop?
The federal record around Farmers Loop runs heavier than most — 1,184 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (576), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Farmers Loop?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Farmers Loop 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 Farmers Loop's scale — its 3a band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farmers Loop'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 Farmers Loop’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Farmers Loop's own scale — the 13,949 acres it covers and 1,184 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farmers Loop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farmers Loop, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farmers Loop's boundary and the 13,949 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Farmers Loop 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 Farmers Loop's 13,949 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 Farmers Loop's 13,949 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farmers Loop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,949 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Farmers Loop-wide figureread your own land →