Naknek, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Naknek, 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 Naknek 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 Naknek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Naknek — the short answer
Naknek, Alaska: USDA zone 4b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 52K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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
- 52K 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 4b is Naknek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Naknek's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Naknek
Each reading below is measured for Naknek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNaknek runs about 135 days between hard freezes (read from Bristol Bay Borough, the closest normal to Naknek) — 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
MeasuredNaknek sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Naknek
Every plant below cleared Naknek's own zone 4b and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Naknek?
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. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Naknek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Naknek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Peninsula AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- RED SALMON CANNERYBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- City MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Bristol Bay BoroughUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Red Salmon PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Pen Air NaknekUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Naknek HWY ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Naknek Engine SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Lift Station #3Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Lift Station #2Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Lift Station #1Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Camai ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Naknek'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 Naknek.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Naknek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Naknek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Naknek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Naknek, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Naknek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Naknek
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 Naknek average
Your land is one point inside Naknek
Everything above resolves to Naknek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 52K 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 Naknek Average
Naknek Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Naknek
- ●One soil character for all of Naknek
- ●Frost dates read at Naknek's scale: May 13 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Naknek's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Naknek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Naknek, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Naknek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Naknek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Naknek average
How we know this about Naknek
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 Naknek
When does frost risk typically end in Naknek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Naknek 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 Naknek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Naknek 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 Naknek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Naknek 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 Naknek?
The federal record around Naknek is a meaningful one — 32 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.2 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 Naknek?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Naknek 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 Naknek's scale — its 4b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Naknek'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 Naknek’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Naknek's own scale — the 52,100 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Naknek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Naknek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Naknek's boundary and the 52,100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Naknek 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 Naknek's 52,100 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bristol Bay County
- 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 Naknek's 52,100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Naknek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 52,100 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.2 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 Naknek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaNaknek sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides