Hydaburg, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hydaburg, 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 Hydaburg 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 Hydaburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hydaburg — the short answer
Hydaburg, Alaska: USDA zone 8a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 187 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 187 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hydaburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hydaburg's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hydaburg
Each reading below is measured for Hydaburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHydaburg runs about 211 days between hard freezes (read from Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, the closest normal to Hydaburg) — 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
MeasuredHydaburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Hydaburg
Every plant below cleared Hydaburg's own zone 8a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hydaburg?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Hydaburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hydaburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Corbin MineMining · 6.8 mi
- CorbinMining · 6.9 mi
- Miller Brothers ClaimMining · 7.4 mi
- Unnamed OccurrenceMining · 7.6 mi
- Jumbo BasinMining · 7.8 mi
- Campbell ProspectMining · 8.0 mi
- Gonnanson OccurrenceMining · 8.2 mi
- Copper Mountain Part of KetchikanMining · 8.2 mi
- Mt. Jumbo ProspectMining · 8.3 mi
- Copper Mountain MineMining · 8.4 mi
- Copper MountainMining · 8.5 mi
- Jumbo MineMining · 8.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hydaburg'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 Hydaburg.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hydaburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hydaburg, Mining runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Hydaburg. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Hydaburg
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 Hydaburg average
Your land is one point inside Hydaburg
Everything above resolves to Hydaburg as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 187 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Hydaburg Average
Hydaburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hydaburg
- ●One soil character for all of Hydaburg
- ●Frost dates read at Hydaburg's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hydaburg's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hydaburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hydaburg, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hydaburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hydaburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hydaburg average
How we know this about Hydaburg
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 Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Hydaburg
When does frost risk typically end in Hydaburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hydaburg typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Hydaburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hydaburg typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hydaburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hydaburg sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 27, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hydaburg?
The federal record around Hydaburg is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (34), the nearest Mining record about 6.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hydaburg?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hydaburg's scale — its 8a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hydaburg'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 Hydaburg’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Hydaburg's own scale — the 187 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hydaburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hydaburg, the closest Mining record about 6.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hydaburg's boundary and the 187 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hydaburg has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hydaburg's 187 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hydaburg's 187 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hydaburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 187 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 6.8 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 Hydaburg-wide figureread your own land →