Hoonah, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hoonah, 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 Hoonah 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 Hoonah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hoonah — the short answer
Hoonah, Alaska: USDA zone 7a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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
- 4K 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 7a is Hoonah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hoonah's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hoonah
Each reading below is measured for Hoonah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHoonah runs about 237 days between hard freezes (read from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, the closest normal to Hoonah) — 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
MeasuredHoonah 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 Hoonah
Every plant below cleared Hoonah's own zone 7a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hoonah?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Hoonah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hoonah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOONAH TRADING COMPANY BULK FUEL FACILITYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Public Works BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- AMHS - Hoonah Ferry TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SSR SISTERS ISLAND NAV AIDSBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- SSR SISTERS ISLAND NAV AIDSSuperfund · 7.3 mi
Measured from Hoonah'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 Hoonah.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Hoonah
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hoonah
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Hoonah
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 Hoonah average
Your land is one point inside Hoonah
Everything above resolves to Hoonah as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K 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 Hoonah Average
Hoonah Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hoonah
- ●One soil character for all of Hoonah
- ●Frost dates read at Hoonah's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hoonah's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hoonah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hoonah, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hoonah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hoonah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hoonah average
How we know this about Hoonah
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 Hoonah
When does frost risk typically end in Hoonah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hoonah 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 Hoonah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hoonah 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 Hoonah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hoonah 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 Hoonah?
The federal record around Hoonah is a meaningful one — 6 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Hoonah?
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 Hoonah's scale — its 7a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hoonah'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 Hoonah’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Hoonah's own scale — the 3,756 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hoonah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hoonah, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hoonah's boundary and the 3,756 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hoonah 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 Hoonah's 3,756 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 Hoonah's 3,756 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hoonah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,756 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Hoonah-wide figureread your own land →