King Salmon, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in King Salmon, 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 King Salmon 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 King Salmon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
King Salmon — the short answer
King Salmon, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 107K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- Bristol Bay Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- Bristol Bay Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- Bristol Bay Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 107K 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 Bristol Bay Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is King Salmon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against King Salmon's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in King Salmon
Each reading below is measured for King Salmon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKing Salmon runs about 135 days between hard freezes (read from Bristol Bay Borough, the closest normal to King Salmon) — 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
MeasuredKing Salmon sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 King Salmon
Plants matched to King Salmon's USDA zones 4a, 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 King Salmon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near King Salmon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of King Salmon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADOTPF - Naknek ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- USFWS - Alaska Peninsula/Becharof National WUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Quinnat Landing HotelUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- King Air Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Farwest Fisheries Lease LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- USAF KING SALMON AIRPORTSuperfund · 4.9 mi
- SC01704523DADB1 011Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- SC01704523DABB1 006Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- SC01704523ACCB1 004Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- SC01704523BACD2 005Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- SC01704523BACD1 005Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- KING SALMON AIRPORTToxics Release Inventory · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from King Salmon'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 King Salmon.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of King Salmon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of King Salmon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of King Salmon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around King Salmon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of King Salmon. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in King Salmon
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 King Salmon average
Your land is one point inside King Salmon
Everything above resolves to King Salmon as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 107K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bristol Bay Borough’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 King Salmon Average
King Salmon Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across King Salmon
- ●One soil character for all of King Salmon
- ●Frost dates read at King Salmon's scale: May 13 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not King Salmon's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in King Salmon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in King Salmon, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that King Salmon averages can't show:
We read public map data around King Salmon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the King Salmon average
How we know this about King Salmon
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 Bristol Bay 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 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 King Salmon
When does frost risk typically end in King Salmon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in King Salmon typically lands around May 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 Jun 3.
When is the first frost in King Salmon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in King Salmon typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in King Salmon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, King Salmon sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 11, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in King Salmon?
The federal record around King Salmon is a meaningful one — 41 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 King Salmon?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, King Salmon 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at King Salmon's scale — its 4a band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of King Salmon'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 King Salmon’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at King Salmon's own scale — the 107,003 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- King Salmon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near King Salmon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- King Salmon's boundary and the 107,003 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — King Salmon has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bristol Bay Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so King Salmon's 107,003 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bristol Bay 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 Bristol Bay 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 Bristol Bay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among King Salmon's 107,003 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of King Salmon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 107,003 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 King Salmon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaKing Salmon sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides