Haines, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Haines, 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 Haines 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 Haines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Haines — the short answer
Haines, Alaska: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- Haines Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- Haines Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- Haines Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Haines Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Haines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Haines's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Haines
Each reading below is measured for Haines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHaines runs about 195 days between hard freezes (read from Haines Borough, the closest normal to Haines) — 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
MeasuredHaines sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Haines
Every plant below cleared Haines's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Haines?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Haines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Haines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DELTA WESTERN HAINES BULK FACILITYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DELTA WESTERN, LLC HAINES BULK FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- US ARMY HAINES FUEL TERMINALSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- US ARMY HAINES FUEL TERMINALBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- City Of HainesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Mount RipinskiMining · 1.6 mi
- Haines Home Building SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- L. EDWARD LAPEYRIBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Bigfoot Auto Service Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DEG, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Haines Small Earth StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Haines Light & Power Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Haines'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 Haines.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Haines
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Haines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Haines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Haines, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Haines — Superfund (3 sites) and Mining (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Haines
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 Haines average
Your land is one point inside Haines
Everything above resolves to Haines as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Haines 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 Haines Average
Haines Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Haines
- ●One soil character for all of Haines
- ●Frost dates read at Haines's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Haines's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Haines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Haines, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Haines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Haines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Haines average
How we know this about Haines
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 Haines 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 Haines
When does frost risk typically end in Haines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Haines typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Haines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Haines typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Haines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Haines sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 12, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Haines?
The federal record around Haines is a meaningful one — 33 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Brownfields 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 Haines?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Haines's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Haines'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 Haines’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Haines's own scale — the 8,482 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Haines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Haines, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Haines's boundary and the 8,482 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Haines has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Haines Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Haines's 8,482 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Haines County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Haines 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 Haines County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Haines's 8,482 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Haines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,482 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Haines-wide figureread your own land →