Loring, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Loring, 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 Loring 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 Loring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Loring — the short answer
Loring, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 355 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 355 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 Loring's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loring's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loring
Each reading below is measured for Loring itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLoring runs about 223 days between hard freezes (read from Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the closest normal to Loring) — 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
MeasuredLoring 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 Loring
Every plant below cleared Loring'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 Loring?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Loring
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loring. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Indian PointMining · 1.7 mi
- ConkleMining · 4.3 mi
- Sunrise Queen 1-6Mining · 6.3 mi
- SOUTHEAST ALASKA MEASUREMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- Lucky FourMining · 7.4 mi
- Hump IslandMining · 7.8 mi
- Moon 1-16Mining · 8.2 mi
- J.C.Mining · 8.2 mi
- Vickie RoseMining · 8.8 mi
- Rita AnneMining · 8.8 mi
- Unnamed (shore of Leask Cove)Mining · 8.8 mi
- J.C. 1Mining · 9.7 mi
Measured from Loring'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 Loring.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Loring
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
11 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loring
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Loring
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 Loring average
Your land is one point inside Loring
Everything above resolves to Loring as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 355 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ketchikan Gateway 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 Loring Average
Loring Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Loring
- ●One soil character for all of Loring
- ●Frost dates read at Loring's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loring's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loring
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loring, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loring averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loring — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loring average
How we know this about Loring
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 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 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 Loring
When does frost risk typically end in Loring?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loring 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 Loring?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loring 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 Loring?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loring 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 Loring?
The federal record around Loring is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (11), the nearest Mining record about 1.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Loring?
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 Loring's scale — its 7b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loring'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 Loring’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Loring's own scale — the 355 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loring's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loring, the closest Mining record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loring's boundary and the 355 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 — Loring 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 Loring's 355 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 Loring's 355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loring you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.7 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 Loring-wide figureread your own land →