Lutak, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lutak, 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 Lutak 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 Lutak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lutak — the short answer
Lutak, Alaska: USDA zone 5a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 81K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- Haines Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- Haines Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- Haines Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 81K 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 Haines Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Lutak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lutak's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lutak
Each reading below is measured for Lutak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLutak runs about 195 days between hard freezes (read from Haines Borough, the closest normal to Lutak) — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLutak sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Lutak
Every plant below cleared Lutak's own zone 5a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lutak?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Lutak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lutak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EldoradoMining · 5.0 mi
- Unnamed (on Mount Harding)Mining · 5.5 mi
- Unnamed (at headwaters of Burro Creek)Mining · 6.2 mi
- Unnamed (in the Takshanuk Mountains)Mining · 7.0 mi
- Unnamed (along the Haines Highway)Mining · 7.5 mi
- Unnamed (near Tukgahgo Mountain)Mining · 7.9 mi
- Unnamed (west of Tukgahgo Mountain)Mining · 8.4 mi
- Unnamed (southeast of Klukwan Village)Mining · 8.5 mi
- 6th Inf.Div.(lt.)& U.S.Army Gar.Underground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- SKAGWAY CY OF LANDFILLBrownfields · 9.4 mi
- L. EDWARD LAPEYRIBrownfields · 9.6 mi
- PETRO MARINE SERVICES - SKAGWAYBrownfields · 9.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lutak'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 Lutak.
Total Sites
21
within ~10 miles of Lutak
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lutak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lutak
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Lutak
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 Lutak average
Your land is one point inside Lutak
Everything above resolves to Lutak as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 81K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Haines 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 Lutak Average
Lutak Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lutak
- ●One soil character for all of Lutak
- ●Frost dates read at Lutak's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lutak's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lutak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lutak, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lutak averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lutak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lutak average
How we know this about Lutak
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 Haines 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 Lutak
When does frost risk typically end in Lutak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lutak typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Lutak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lutak typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lutak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lutak sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 12, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lutak?
The federal record around Lutak is a meaningful one — 21 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (9), the nearest Mining record about 5.0 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 I protect my plants from frost in Lutak?
From about Sep 26 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lutak's scale — its 5a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lutak'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 Lutak’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Lutak's own scale — the 81,253 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lutak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lutak, the closest Mining record about 5.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lutak's boundary and the 81,253 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lutak has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Haines Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lutak's 81,253 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Haines County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Haines 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 Haines County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lutak's 81,253 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lutak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 81,253 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 5.0 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 Lutak-wide figureread your own land →