Pelican, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pelican, 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 Pelican 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 Pelican — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pelican — the short answer
Pelican, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 351 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 351 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Pelican's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pelican's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pelican
Each reading below is measured for Pelican itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPelican runs about 237 days between hard freezes (read from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, the closest normal to Pelican) — 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
MeasuredPelican 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 Pelican
Every plant below cleared Pelican's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pelican?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Pelican
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pelican. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PELICAN SEAFOODS FUEL FACILITYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- El Nido Gold-Silver MineMining · 2.8 mi
- Apex-El Nido MinesMining · 3.0 mi
- Apex Gold-Silver MineMining · 3.1 mi
- Apex-El NidoMining · 3.1 mi
- Copper JunctionMining · 3.9 mi
- Goldwin Gold-Silver MineMining · 5.0 mi
- Stag Bay GroupMining · 5.7 mi
- Stag Bay CopperMining · 5.8 mi
- Stag Bay Iron-Copper ProspectMining · 5.9 mi
- Good Ol' TomMining · 5.9 mi
- Yakobi IslandMining · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pelican'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 Pelican.
Total Sites
27
within ~10 miles of Pelican
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pelican
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pelican, Mining runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Pelican. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Pelican
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 Pelican average
Your land is one point inside Pelican
Everything above resolves to Pelican as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 351 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hoonah-Angoon 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 Pelican Average
Pelican Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pelican
- ●One soil character for all of Pelican
- ●Frost dates read at Pelican's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pelican's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pelican
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pelican, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pelican averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pelican — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pelican average
How we know this about Pelican
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 Hoonah-Angoon 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 Pelican
When does frost risk typically end in Pelican?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pelican typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Pelican?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pelican typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pelican?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pelican sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 4, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pelican?
The federal record around Pelican is a meaningful one — 27 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (25), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Pelican?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pelican's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pelican'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 Pelican’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Pelican's own scale — the 351 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pelican's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pelican, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pelican's boundary and the 351 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pelican has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pelican's 351 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hoonah-Angoon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pelican's 351 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pelican you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 351 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Pelican-wide figureread your own land →