Koliganek, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Koliganek, 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 Koliganek 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 Koliganek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Koliganek — the short answer
Koliganek, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- Dillingham Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- Dillingham Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- Dillingham 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 Dillingham Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is Koliganek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Koliganek's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Koliganek
Each reading below is measured for Koliganek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKoliganek runs about 135 days between hard freezes (read from Dillingham Census Area, the closest normal to Koliganek) — 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
MeasuredKoliganek 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 Koliganek
Plants matched to Koliganek'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 Koliganek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Koliganek
We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.
Your land is one point inside Koliganek
Everything above resolves to Koliganek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 11K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dillingham 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 Koliganek Average
Koliganek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Koliganek
- ●One soil character for all of Koliganek
- ●Frost dates read at Koliganek's scale: May 13 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Koliganek's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Koliganek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Koliganek, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Koliganek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Koliganek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Koliganek average
How we know this about Koliganek
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 Dillingham 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 Koliganek
When does frost risk typically end in Koliganek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Koliganek 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 Koliganek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Koliganek 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 Koliganek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Koliganek 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 Koliganek?
No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around Koliganek. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Koliganek?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Koliganek 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 Koliganek's scale — its 4a band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Koliganek'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 Koliganek’s own scale
2 of the readings below were taken at Koliganek's own scale — the 10,705 acres it covers; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Koliganek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Koliganek's boundary and the 10,705 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Koliganek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dillingham Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Koliganek's 10,705 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dillingham 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 Dillingham 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 Dillingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Koliganek's 10,705 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Koliganek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,705 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly →
- 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 Koliganek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaKoliganek sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides