Pilot Point, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, 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 Pilot Point, 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 Pilot Point 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 Pilot Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pilot Point — the short answer
Pilot Point, Alaska: USDA zone 5b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- Lake and Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- Lake and Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- Lake and Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Lake and Peninsula Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Pilot Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pilot Point's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pilot Point
Each reading below is measured for Pilot Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPilot Point runs about 135 days between hard freezes (read from Lake and Peninsula Borough, the closest normal to Pilot Point) — 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
MeasuredPilot Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Pilot Point
Every plant below cleared Pilot Point's own zone 5b and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pilot Point?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Pilot Point
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 Pilot Point
Everything above resolves to Pilot Point as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake and Peninsula Borough’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 Pilot Point Average
Pilot Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pilot Point
- ●One soil character for all of Pilot Point
- ●Frost dates read at Pilot Point's scale: May 13 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pilot Point's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pilot Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pilot Point, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pilot Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pilot Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pilot Point average
How we know this about Pilot Point
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 Lake and Peninsula 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 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 Pilot Point
When does frost risk typically end in Pilot Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pilot Point 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 Pilot Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pilot Point 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 Pilot Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pilot Point 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 Pilot Point?
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 Pilot Point. 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 Pilot Point?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pilot Point 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 Pilot Point's scale — its 5b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pilot Point'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 Pilot Point’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Pilot Point's own scale — the 15,712 acres it covers; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pilot Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pilot Point's boundary and the 15,712 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pilot Point has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake and Peninsula Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pilot Point's 15,712 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake and Peninsula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake and Peninsula 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 Lake and Peninsula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pilot Point's 15,712 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pilot Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,712 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 Pilot Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaPilot Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides