Susitna North, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Susitna North, 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 Susitna North 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 Susitna North — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Susitna North — the short answer
Susitna North, Alaska: USDA zone 5a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 177K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 177K 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 Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Susitna North's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Susitna North's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Susitna North
Each reading below is measured for Susitna North itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSusitna North runs about 145 days between hard freezes (read from Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the closest normal to Susitna North) — 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
MeasuredSusitna North sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Susitna North
Every plant below cleared Susitna North's own zone 5a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Susitna North?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — 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 Susitna North
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Susitna North. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K&K Service and RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- Alaska Railroad Corporation Arrc TalkeetnaUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- AT&T - Talkeetna Earth Station & Microwave RepeateUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- Dba K2 Aviation (air Taxi)Underground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- FAA TalkeetnaUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- Akland HelicoptersUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- Matanuska Telephone Assoc. IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- McWilliams T&m Site,aa-3122Underground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- Hudson Air Service Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- SB02400429CABC1 001Nitrate · 10.0 mi
Measured from Susitna North'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 Susitna North.
Total Sites
11
within ~10 miles of Susitna North
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Susitna North
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Susitna North
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 Susitna North average
Your land is one point inside Susitna North
Everything above resolves to Susitna North as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 177K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Matanuska-Susitna Borough’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 Susitna North Average
Susitna North Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Susitna North
- ●One soil character for all of Susitna North
- ●Frost dates read at Susitna North's scale: May 6 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Susitna North's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Susitna North
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Susitna North, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Susitna North averages can't show:
We read public map data around Susitna North — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Susitna North average
How we know this about Susitna North
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 Matanuska-Susitna 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 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 Susitna North
When does frost risk typically end in Susitna North?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Susitna North typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Susitna North?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Susitna North typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Susitna North?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Susitna North sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 14, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Susitna North?
The federal record around Susitna North is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 9.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Susitna North?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Susitna North 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Susitna North's scale — its 5a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Susitna North'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 Susitna North’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Susitna North's own scale — the 176,643 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Susitna North's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Susitna North, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 9.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Susitna North's boundary and the 176,643 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Susitna North has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Matanuska-Susitna Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Susitna North's 176,643 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Matanuska-Susitna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Matanuska-Susitna 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 Matanuska-Susitna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Susitna North's 176,643 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Susitna North you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 176,643 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 9.2 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 Susitna North-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaSusitna North sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides