Teller, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Teller, 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 Teller 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 Teller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Teller — the short answer
Teller, Alaska: USDA zone 3a, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 956 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 956 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 Nome Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3a is Teller's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Teller's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Teller
Each reading below is measured for Teller itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTeller runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Nome Census Area, the closest normal to Teller) — 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
MeasuredTeller 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 Teller
Plants matched to Teller's USDA zones 3a, 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 Teller?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — 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 Teller
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Teller. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dese CreekMining · 4.3 mi
- USDOHS CG POINT SPENCER DUMP SITESuperfund · 4.6 mi
- ADOTPF - Teller Maintenance StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Bluestone RiverMining · 9.9 mi
Measured from Teller'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 Teller.
Total Sites
5
within ~10 miles of Teller
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Teller
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.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Teller
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 Teller average
Your land is one point inside Teller
Everything above resolves to Teller as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 956 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nome 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 Teller Average
Teller Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Teller
- ●One soil character for all of Teller
- ●Frost dates read at Teller's scale: May 24 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Teller's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Teller
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Teller, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Teller averages can't show:
We read public map data around Teller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Teller average
How we know this about Teller
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 Nome 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 Teller
When does frost risk typically end in Teller?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Teller typically lands around May 24, 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Teller?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Teller typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Teller?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Teller sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 5, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Teller?
The federal record around Teller is a meaningful one — 5 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (3), the nearest Mining record about 4.3 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 Teller?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Teller 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 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Teller's scale — its 3a band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Teller'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 Teller’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Teller's own scale — the 956 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Teller's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Teller, the closest Mining record about 4.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Teller's boundary and the 956 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Teller has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nome Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Teller's 956 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nome 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 Nome 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 Nome County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Teller's 956 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Teller you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 956 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 4.3 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 Teller-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaTeller sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides