Klukwan, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Klukwan, 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 Klukwan 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 Klukwan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Klukwan — the short answer
Klukwan, Alaska: USDA zone 5b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 806 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 806 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Klukwan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Klukwan's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Klukwan
Each reading below is measured for Klukwan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKlukwan runs about 237 days between hard freezes (read from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, the closest normal to Klukwan) — 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
MeasuredKlukwan sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Klukwan
Plants matched to Klukwan's USDA zones 5b, 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 Klukwan?
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 Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Klukwan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Klukwan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CD02805634CCAC2 002Nitrate · 1900 ft
- CD02905601ABAA1 001Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CD02905601ABAA2 001Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- Klukwan FanMining · 0.9 mi
- Klukwan Fan Iron-Copper-Platinum PlacerMining · 1.1 mi
- KlukwanMining · 1.2 mi
- CD02905601BBAC1 002Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Klukwan Iron-Copper-Platinum ProspectMining · 1.4 mi
- 6th Inf.Div.(lt.)& U.S.Army Gar.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Unnamed (southeast of Klukwan Village)Mining · 2.6 mi
- Unnamed (at head of Goat Hollow)Mining · 3.4 mi
- Unnamed (along the Haines Highway)Mining · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Klukwan'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 Klukwan.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Klukwan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Klukwan
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Klukwan
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 Klukwan average
Your land is one point inside Klukwan
Everything above resolves to Klukwan as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 806 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hoonah-Angoon 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 Klukwan Average
Klukwan Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Klukwan
- ●One soil character for all of Klukwan
- ●Frost dates read at Klukwan's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Klukwan's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Klukwan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Klukwan, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Klukwan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Klukwan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Klukwan average
How we know this about Klukwan
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 Hoonah-Angoon 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 Klukwan
When does frost risk typically end in Klukwan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Klukwan typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Klukwan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Klukwan typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Klukwan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Klukwan sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 4, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Klukwan?
The federal record around Klukwan shows 23 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Klukwan?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Klukwan's scale — its 5b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Klukwan'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 Klukwan’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Klukwan's own scale — the 806 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Klukwan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Klukwan, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Klukwan's boundary and the 806 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Klukwan has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Klukwan's 806 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Klukwan's 806 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Klukwan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 806 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Klukwan-wide figureread your own land →