Sleetmute, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sleetmute, 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 Sleetmute 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 Sleetmute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sleetmute — the short answer
Sleetmute, Alaska: USDA zone 2b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 63K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 2b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- Bethel Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 63K 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 Bethel Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 2b is Sleetmute's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sleetmute's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sleetmute
Each reading below is measured for Sleetmute itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSleetmute runs about 142 days between hard freezes (read from Bethel Census Area, the closest normal to Sleetmute) — 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
MeasuredSleetmute sits in USDA hardiness zone 2b.
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 Sleetmute
Plants matched to Sleetmute's USDA zones 2b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Sleetmute?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Sleetmute
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sleetmute. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mellick'sMining · 3.4 mi
- LandruMining · 4.6 mi
- McCally CreekMining · 9.5 mi
- USDOI BLM RED DEVIL MINE & MERCURY MILLING & PROCESSING FACILITYSuperfund · 9.8 mi
- Mccallay CreekMining · 9.8 mi
Measured from Sleetmute'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 Sleetmute.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Sleetmute
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sleetmute
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Sleetmute
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 Sleetmute average
Your land is one point inside Sleetmute
Everything above resolves to Sleetmute as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 63K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bethel Census Area’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Sleetmute Average
Sleetmute Average
- ●USDA Zones 2b, averaged across Sleetmute
- ●One soil character for all of Sleetmute
- ●Frost dates read at Sleetmute's scale: May 10 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sleetmute's 2b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sleetmute
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sleetmute, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sleetmute averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sleetmute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sleetmute average
How we know this about Sleetmute
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bethel 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Sleetmute
When does frost risk typically end in Sleetmute?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sleetmute typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Sleetmute?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sleetmute typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sleetmute?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sleetmute sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 15, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sleetmute?
The federal record around Sleetmute is a meaningful one — 6 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (5), the nearest Mining record about 3.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Sleetmute?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sleetmute 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Sleetmute's scale — its 2b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sleetmute'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 Sleetmute’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Sleetmute's own scale — the 62,687 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sleetmute's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sleetmute, the closest Mining record about 3.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sleetmute's boundary and the 62,687 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sleetmute has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bethel Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sleetmute's 62,687 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bethel County
- The candidate plant list — Alaska's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Alaska
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bethel 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 Bethel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sleetmute's 62,687 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sleetmute you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 62,687 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 3.4 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 Sleetmute-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaSleetmute sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides