Hyder, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hyder, 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 Hyder 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 Hyder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hyder — the short answer
Hyder, Alaska: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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
- Town area
- 11K 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 6b is Hyder's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hyder's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hyder
Each reading below is measured for Hyder itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHyder runs about 211 days between hard freezes (read from Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, the closest normal to Hyder) — 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
MeasuredHyder 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 Hyder
Every plant below cleared Hyder's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hyder?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Hyder
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hyder. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Last ShotMining · 850 ft
- Victoria GroupMining · 1300 ft
- AmbroseMining · 1500 ft
- VictoriaMining · 1500 ft
- Lucky Boy ExtensionMining · 2100 ft
- Mountain View: Fish Creek nos. 1, 2, and 3Mining · 0.5 mi
- Fish CreekMining · 0.5 mi
- Mountain ViewMining · 0.5 mi
- Mountain View Group - Ruby Silver VeinMining · 0.6 mi
- Mountain View Group - Marsh VeinMining · 0.6 mi
- BishopMining · 0.6 mi
- Mountain View Group - Skookum VeinMining · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hyder'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 Hyder.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hyder
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hyder, Mining runs higher than the national average — 140 sites within ~10 miles of Hyder. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hyder
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 Hyder average
Your land is one point inside Hyder
Everything above resolves to Hyder as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 11K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area’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 Hyder Average
Hyder Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hyder
- ●One soil character for all of Hyder
- ●Frost dates read at Hyder's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hyder's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hyder
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hyder, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hyder averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hyder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hyder average
How we know this about Hyder
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 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 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 Hyder
When does frost risk typically end in Hyder?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hyder 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 Hyder?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hyder 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 Hyder?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hyder 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 Hyder?
The federal record around Hyder runs heavier than most — 141 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (140), the nearest Mining record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hyder?
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 Hyder's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hyder'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 Hyder’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Hyder's own scale — the 10,972 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hyder's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hyder, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hyder's boundary and the 10,972 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hyder 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 Hyder's 10,972 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 Hyder's 10,972 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hyder you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,972 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.2 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 Hyder-wide figureread your own land →