Russian Mission, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, chokecherry, roman chamomile, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Russian Mission, 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 Russian Mission 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 Russian Mission — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Russian Mission — the short answer
Russian Mission, Alaska: USDA zone 3a, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Apr 16 - May 15
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Sep 24 - Oct 29
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 3a is Russian Mission's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Russian Mission
Each reading below is measured for Russian Mission itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRussian Mission sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a.
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 Russian Mission
Every plant below cleared Russian Mission's own zone 3a. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Russian Mission
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Russian Mission. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Buster CreekMining · 8.5 mi
- Bobtail CreekMining · 8.8 mi
Measured from Russian Mission'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 Russian Mission.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Russian Mission
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 Russian Mission
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 Russian Mission average
Your land is one point inside Russian Mission
Everything above resolves to Russian Mission as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K acres. 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 Russian Mission Average
Russian Mission Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Russian Mission
- ●One soil character for all of Russian Mission
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Russian Mission's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Russian Mission
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Russian Mission, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Russian Mission averages can't show:
We read public map data around Russian Mission — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Russian Mission average
How we know this about Russian Mission
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Russian Mission
When does frost risk typically end in Russian Mission?
Russian Mission has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows Alaska's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Apr 16 - May 15 and their first fall hard freeze around Sep 24 - Oct 29, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Russian Mission?
The federal record around Russian Mission shows 2 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (2), the nearest Mining record about 8.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Russian Mission?
As the season closes around Alaska's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Sep 24 - Oct 29 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Russian Mission's scale — its 3a band and its zone 3a. Your yard writes its own version of Russian Mission'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 Russian Mission’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Russian Mission's own scale — the 3,439 acres it covers and 2 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Russian Mission's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Russian Mission, the closest Mining record about 8.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Russian Mission's boundary and the 3,439 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Russian Mission's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom Alaska
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Russian Mission's 3,439 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kusilvak County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kusilvak 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 Kusilvak County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Russian Mission's 3,439 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Russian Mission you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,439 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 8.5 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 Russian Mission-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaRussian Mission sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides