Homer, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Homer, 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 Homer 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 Homer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Homer — the short answer
Homer, Alaska: USDA zone 6b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Kenai Peninsula Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Homer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Homer's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Homer
Each reading below is measured for Homer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHomer runs about 148 days between hard freezes (read from Kenai Peninsula Borough, the closest normal to Homer) — 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
MeasuredHomer 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 Homer
Every plant below cleared Homer's own zone 6b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Homer?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — 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 Homer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Homer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00601316CCAA1 003Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Spenard Builders SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SC00601320ABCD1 006Nitrate · 2300 ft
- SC00601316CDBA1 017Nitrate · 2400 ft
- SC00601316CDBA2 017Nitrate · 2400 ft
- Port Of HomerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HOMER HS KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGHBrownfields · 2600 ft
- KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH MAINTENANCE SHOPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Homer Electric AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Homer High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Homer Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Homer Police DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Homer'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 Homer.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Homer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Homer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Homer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Homer, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Homer. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Homer
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 Homer average
Your land is one point inside Homer
Everything above resolves to Homer as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kenai Peninsula 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 Homer Average
Homer Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Homer
- ●One soil character for all of Homer
- ●Frost dates read at Homer's scale: May 2 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Homer's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Homer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Homer, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Homer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Homer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Homer average
How we know this about Homer
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 Kenai Peninsula 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 Homer
When does frost risk typically end in Homer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Homer typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Homer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Homer typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Homer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Homer sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 13, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Homer?
The federal record around Homer is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Homer?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Homer 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 2 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Homer's scale — its 6b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Homer'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 Homer’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Homer's own scale — the 8,824 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Homer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Homer, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Homer's boundary and the 8,824 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Homer has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kenai Peninsula Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Homer's 8,824 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kenai Peninsula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kenai Peninsula 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 Kenai Peninsula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Homer's 8,824 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Homer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,824 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Homer-wide figureread your own land →