Kaktovik, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kaktovik, 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 Kaktovik 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 Kaktovik — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kaktovik — the short answer
Kaktovik, Alaska: USDA zone 3a, about 98 days between hard freezes, across 495 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 7
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~98
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 495 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 North Slope Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3a is Kaktovik's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kaktovik's 98-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kaktovik
Each reading below is measured for Kaktovik itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKaktovik runs about 98 days between hard freezes (read from North Slope Borough, the closest normal to Kaktovik) — 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
MeasuredKaktovik sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a.
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 Kaktovik
Plants matched to Kaktovik's USDA zones 3a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Kaktovik?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Kaktovik
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kaktovik. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KAKTOVIK DEPT OF MUNICIPAL SERVICESBrownfields · 2500 ft
- USAF DEW LINE SITE BAR-MAIN: BARTER ISLANDSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- FIRE STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- USAF LRRS BARTER ISLANDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- DISPENSING STATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
Measured from Kaktovik'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 Kaktovik.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Kaktovik
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kaktovik
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Kaktovik
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 Kaktovik average
Your land is one point inside Kaktovik
Everything above resolves to Kaktovik as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 495 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from North Slope 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 Kaktovik Average
Kaktovik Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Kaktovik
- ●One soil character for all of Kaktovik
- ●Frost dates read at Kaktovik's scale: Jun 7 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kaktovik's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kaktovik
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kaktovik, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kaktovik averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kaktovik — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kaktovik average
How we know this about Kaktovik
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 North Slope 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 Kaktovik
When does frost risk typically end in Kaktovik?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kaktovik typically lands around Jun 7, 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 Jun 28.
When is the first frost in Kaktovik?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kaktovik typically arrives around Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 30, so the watching starts about Aug 14 — about 98 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kaktovik?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kaktovik sees about 98 frost-free days — roughly Jun 7 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 28 to Aug 30, about 63 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kaktovik?
The federal record around Kaktovik is a meaningful one — 6 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Kaktovik?
With about 98 frost-free days between hard freezes, Kaktovik 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 126 to 154 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Kaktovik's scale — its 3a band and its 98-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kaktovik'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 Kaktovik’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Kaktovik's own scale — the 495 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kaktovik's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kaktovik, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kaktovik's boundary and the 495 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kaktovik has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom North Slope Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kaktovik's 495 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom North Slope County
- The candidate plant list — Alaska's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Alaska
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom North Slope 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 North Slope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kaktovik's 495 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kaktovik you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 495 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Kaktovik-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaKaktovik sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides