Whittier, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Whittier, 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 Whittier 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 Whittier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Whittier — the short answer
Whittier, Alaska: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Chugach Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Whittier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whittier's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whittier
Each reading below is measured for Whittier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWhittier runs about 219 days between hard freezes (read from Chugach Census Area, the closest normal to Whittier) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWhittier 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 Whittier
Every plant below cleared Whittier's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whittier?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Whittier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whittier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOJER LTD WHITTIER ALASKABrownfields · 1800 ft
- City of Whittier - Buckner BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WHITTIER CY OF P 12 BLDG PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GCI Ocean Terminal BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Alaska Railroad Corp (arrc) - WhittierUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AMHS - Whittier Ferry TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Maintenance Shop Whittier Small Boat HarborUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Shoreside WhittierUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Begich Towers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WHITTIER DEC PROGRAMBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- City of Whittier Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Defense Fuel Support Point WhittierUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whittier'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 Whittier.
Total Sites
26
within ~10 miles of Whittier
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whittier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whittier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whittier, Mining runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Whittier. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Whittier
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 Whittier average
Your land is one point inside Whittier
Everything above resolves to Whittier as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chugach 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 Whittier Average
Whittier Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Whittier
- ●One soil character for all of Whittier
- ●Frost dates read at Whittier's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whittier's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whittier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whittier, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whittier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whittier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whittier average
How we know this about Whittier
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 Chugach 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 Whittier
When does frost risk typically end in Whittier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whittier typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Whittier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whittier typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whittier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whittier sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 25, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whittier?
The federal record around Whittier is a meaningful one — 26 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Whittier?
From about Oct 9 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Whittier's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whittier'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 Whittier’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Whittier's own scale — the 7,847 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whittier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whittier, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whittier's boundary and the 7,847 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Whittier has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chugach Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Whittier's 7,847 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chugach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chugach 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 Chugach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Whittier's 7,847 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whittier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,847 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Whittier-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaWhittier sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides