Nightmute, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nightmute, 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 Nightmute 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 Nightmute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nightmute — the short answer
Nightmute, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 63K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 63K 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 Bethel Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is Nightmute's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nightmute's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nightmute
Each reading below is measured for Nightmute itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNightmute runs about 142 days between hard freezes (read from Bethel Census Area, the closest normal to Nightmute) — 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
MeasuredNightmute 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 Nightmute
Every plant below cleared Nightmute's own zone 4a and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nightmute?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Nightmute
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 Nightmute
Everything above resolves to Nightmute as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 63K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bethel Census Area’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Nightmute Average
Nightmute Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Nightmute
- ●One soil character for all of Nightmute
- ●Frost dates read at Nightmute's scale: May 10 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nightmute's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nightmute
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nightmute, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nightmute averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nightmute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nightmute average
How we know this about Nightmute
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bethel 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Nightmute
When does frost risk typically end in Nightmute?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nightmute typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Nightmute?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nightmute typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nightmute?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nightmute sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 15, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nightmute?
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 Nightmute. 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 Nightmute?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Nightmute 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Nightmute's scale — its 4a band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nightmute'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 Nightmute’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Nightmute's own scale — the 63,333 acres it covers; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nightmute's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nightmute's boundary and the 63,333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Nightmute has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bethel Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nightmute's 63,333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bethel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bethel 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 Bethel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nightmute's 63,333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nightmute you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 63,333 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 Nightmute-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaNightmute sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides