Yakutat, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Yakutat, 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 Yakutat 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 Yakutat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yakutat — the short answer
Yakutat, Alaska: USDA zone 6b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 64K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- Yakutat City and Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- Yakutat City and Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- Yakutat City and Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 64K 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 Yakutat City and Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Yakutat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yakutat's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yakutat
Each reading below is measured for Yakutat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsYakutat runs about 159 days between hard freezes (read from Yakutat City and Borough, the closest normal to Yakutat) — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredYakutat sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Yakutat
Every plant below cleared Yakutat's own zone 6b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yakutat?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Yakutat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yakutat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YAKUTAT AFBSuperfund · 2.0 mi
- CD02803404BDAA1 002Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- CD02803404ACCB1 003Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- CD02803404BDDA1 007Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- CD02803404DCAA1 005Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- CD02803404DCDA1 006Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- Yakutat Earth StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- NOAA - NWS BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- St Elias Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Yakataga RRL (radio Relay Repeater Link)Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Yak-tat-kwan Native Corp.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Yakutat Seafoods Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yakutat'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 Yakutat.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Yakutat
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yakutat
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yakutat
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yakutat, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Yakutat. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Yakutat
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 Yakutat average
Your land is one point inside Yakutat
Everything above resolves to Yakutat as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 64K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yakutat City and 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 Yakutat Average
Yakutat Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Yakutat
- ●One soil character for all of Yakutat
- ●Frost dates read at Yakutat's scale: May 2 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yakutat's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yakutat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yakutat, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yakutat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yakutat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yakutat average
How we know this about Yakutat
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 Yakutat City and 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 Yakutat
When does frost risk typically end in Yakutat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yakutat typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Yakutat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yakutat typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yakutat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yakutat sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 24, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yakutat?
The federal record around Yakutat is a meaningful one — 40 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Superfund record about 2.0 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 Yakutat?
From about Sep 8 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 Oct 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 Oct 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yakutat's scale — its 6b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yakutat'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 Yakutat’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Yakutat's own scale — the 64,233 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yakutat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yakutat, the closest Superfund record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yakutat's boundary and the 64,233 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Yakutat has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yakutat City and Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yakutat's 64,233 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yakutat County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yakutat 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 Yakutat County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yakutat's 64,233 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yakutat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 64,233 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 2.0 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 Yakutat-wide figureread your own land →