Ketchikan, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — 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, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ketchikan, 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 Ketchikan 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 Ketchikan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ketchikan — the short answer
Ketchikan, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Ketchikan Gateway Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Ketchikan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ketchikan's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ketchikan
Each reading below is measured for Ketchikan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKetchikan runs about 223 days between hard freezes (read from Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the closest normal to Ketchikan) — 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
MeasuredKetchikan sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Ketchikan
Every plant below cleared Ketchikan's own zone 7b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ketchikan?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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 Ketchikan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ketchikan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WildcatMining · 950 ft
- USDOT CG GUARD ISLAND LIGHTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Ready MixMining · 1800 ft
- Ketchikan Toll CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Ketchikan Public UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- USCG - Loran C StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- New Ketchikan Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ketchikan Pulp Company-auto ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ketchikan International AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ketchikan GSE BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ketchikan Air ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FAA Sister IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ketchikan'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 Ketchikan.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Ketchikan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ketchikan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ketchikan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ketchikan, Mining runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Ketchikan. 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 Ketchikan
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 Ketchikan average
Your land is one point inside Ketchikan
Everything above resolves to Ketchikan as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ketchikan Gateway 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 Ketchikan Average
Ketchikan Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ketchikan
- ●One soil character for all of Ketchikan
- ●Frost dates read at Ketchikan's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ketchikan's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ketchikan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ketchikan, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ketchikan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ketchikan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ketchikan average
How we know this about Ketchikan
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 Ketchikan Gateway 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 Ketchikan
When does frost risk typically end in Ketchikan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ketchikan typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Ketchikan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ketchikan 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ketchikan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ketchikan sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 27, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ketchikan?
The federal record around Ketchikan is a meaningful one — 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Mining record about 0.2 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 Ketchikan?
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 Ketchikan's scale — its 7b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ketchikan'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 Ketchikan’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Ketchikan's own scale — the 2,451 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ketchikan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ketchikan, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ketchikan's boundary and the 2,451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ketchikan has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ketchikan Gateway Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ketchikan's 2,451 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ketchikan Gateway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ketchikan Gateway 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 Ketchikan Gateway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ketchikan's 2,451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ketchikan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,451 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 Ketchikan-wide figureread your own land →