Port Alexander, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Port Alexander, 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 Port Alexander 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 Port Alexander — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Alexander — the short answer
Port Alexander, Alaska: USDA zone 8a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Port Alexander's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Alexander's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Alexander
Each reading below is measured for Port Alexander itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Alexander runs about 211 days between hard freezes (read from Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, the closest normal to Port Alexander) — 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
MeasuredPort Alexander sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Port Alexander
Every plant below cleared Port Alexander's own zone 8a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Alexander?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Port Alexander
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 Port Alexander
Everything above resolves to Port Alexander as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Port Alexander Average
Port Alexander Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Port Alexander
- ●One soil character for all of Port Alexander
- ●Frost dates read at Port Alexander's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Alexander's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Alexander
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Alexander, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Alexander averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Alexander — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Alexander average
How we know this about Port Alexander
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 Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Port Alexander
When does frost risk typically end in Port Alexander?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Alexander typically lands around Apr 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 May 4.
When is the first frost in Port Alexander?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Alexander typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Alexander?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Alexander sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 27, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Alexander?
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 Port Alexander. 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 I protect my plants from frost in Port Alexander?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Alexander's scale — its 8a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Alexander'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 Port Alexander’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Port Alexander's own scale — the 2,240 acres it covers; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Alexander's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Alexander's boundary and the 2,240 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Alexander has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Alexander's 2,240 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Alexander's 2,240 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Alexander you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,240 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 Port Alexander-wide figureread your own land →