Gustavus, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Gustavus, 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 Gustavus 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 Gustavus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gustavus — the short answer
Gustavus, Alaska: USDA zone 6b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Gustavus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gustavus's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gustavus
Each reading below is measured for Gustavus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGustavus runs about 237 days between hard freezes (read from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, the closest normal to Gustavus) — 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGustavus sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Gustavus
Every plant below cleared Gustavus's own zone 6b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gustavus?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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.
What's on the federal record near Gustavus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gustavus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALASKA DOT & PF GUSTAVUS AIRPORTSuperfund · 1.0 mi
- ALASKA DOT & PF GUSTAVUS AIRPORTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Former Glacier Bay Aviation LeaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ADOTPF - GustavusUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FAA GustavusUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MV STELLERBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- KOHALA RANCH WATER CO.PFAS · 3.3 mi
- GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK BARTLETT COVEToxics Release Inventory · 5.9 mi
- GLACIER BAY NATIONAL PARK BARTLETT COVESuperfund · 5.9 mi
- Exray, Pit No. 6 ProspectMining · 6.9 mi
- Ex-RayMining · 6.9 mi
- Peak 3404Mining · 8.0 mi
Measured from Gustavus'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 Gustavus.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Gustavus
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gustavus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gustavus
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Gustavus
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 Gustavus average
Your land is one point inside Gustavus
Everything above resolves to Gustavus as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 23K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’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 Gustavus Average
Gustavus Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Gustavus
- ●One soil character for all of Gustavus
- ●Frost dates read at Gustavus's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gustavus's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gustavus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gustavus, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gustavus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gustavus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gustavus average
How we know this about Gustavus
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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’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 Gustavus
When does frost risk typically end in Gustavus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gustavus 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.
When is the first frost in Gustavus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gustavus typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gustavus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gustavus 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 Gustavus?
The federal record around Gustavus is a meaningful one — 12 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (3), the nearest Superfund record about 1.0 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gustavus?
From about Oct 19 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 Nov 18 (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 Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gustavus's scale — its 6b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gustavus'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 Gustavus’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Gustavus's own scale — the 23,269 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gustavus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gustavus, the closest Superfund record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gustavus's boundary and the 23,269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gustavus has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gustavus's 23,269 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hoonah-Angoon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gustavus's 23,269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gustavus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,269 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 1.0 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 Gustavus-wide figureread your own land →