Port Lions, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Lions, 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 Lions 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 Lions — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Lions — the short answer
Port Lions, Alaska: USDA zone 7a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- Kodiak Island Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- Kodiak Island Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- Kodiak Island Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Kodiak Island Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Port Lions's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Lions's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Lions
Each reading below is measured for Port Lions itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Lions runs about 181 days between hard freezes (read from Kodiak Island Borough, the closest normal to Port Lions) — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPort Lions sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Lions
Every plant below cleared Port Lions's own zone 7a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Lions?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Port Lions
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Lions. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UnnamedMining · 7.7 mi
- Cornelius CreekMining · 7.8 mi
- Kizhuyak Lode, MidMining · 8.0 mi
- Kizhuyak Lode, NorthMining · 8.1 mi
- Anton Larson BayMining · 8.2 mi
- East Anton Larsen BayMining · 8.6 mi
- Chalet MountainMining · 9.3 mi
- OuzinkieMining · 9.4 mi
- Womens BayMining · 9.4 mi
Measured from Port Lions'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 Port Lions.
Total Sites
10
within ~10 miles of Port Lions
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
10 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Lions
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Port Lions
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 Port Lions average
Your land is one point inside Port Lions
Everything above resolves to Port Lions as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kodiak Island 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 Port Lions Average
Port Lions Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Port Lions
- ●One soil character for all of Port Lions
- ●Frost dates read at Port Lions's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Lions's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Lions
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Lions, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Lions averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Lions — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Lions average
How we know this about Port Lions
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 Kodiak Island 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 Port Lions
When does frost risk typically end in Port Lions?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Lions typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Port Lions?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Lions typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Lions?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Lions sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 3, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Lions?
The federal record around Port Lions is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (10), the nearest Mining record about 7.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Port Lions?
From about Sep 17 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 Oct 17 (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 Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Lions's scale — its 7a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Lions'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 Lions’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Port Lions's own scale — the 3,191 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Lions's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Lions, the closest Mining record about 7.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Lions's boundary and the 3,191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Lions has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kodiak Island Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Lions's 3,191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kodiak Island County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kodiak Island 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 Kodiak Island County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Lions's 3,191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Lions you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 7.7 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 Port Lions-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaPort Lions sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides