Alaska
Planting zones in Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska
This borough spans USDA zones 4a to 6b, so there is no single zone for Lake and Peninsula Borough and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 29% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
The growing season in Lake and Peninsula Borough is closing
Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives September 12 – October 18 across the 6 NOAA stations serving this borough .
Your next season already has a date
The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around March 15 – April 9 — counted back from a last spring freeze of May 10 – June 4 here.
These are ranges across the whole borough. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.
All 6 stations agreeAt least one station
Every one of the 6 NOAA stations serving this borough counts June 4 – September 12 as growing season (100 days). Widening to any single station gives May 10 – October 18 (161 days).
That is a 61-day difference inside one borough — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.
Which zone you are in depends where you are
Lake and Peninsula Borough covers 6 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the borough one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 29% in zone 6b and wrong for the other 71%. Here is the actual split.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6b | 4 | 29% | |
| 4a | 3 | 21% | |
| 4b | 3 | 21% | |
| 5a | 2 | 14% | |
| 5b | 1 | 7% | |
| 6a | 1 | 7% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the borough's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
Across the 6 NOAA stations serving this borough. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.
The growing season runs 98–160 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 55–67.3 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 3.8–9.9" across those 5 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 57% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 65 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
Every ZIP code in Lake and Peninsula Borough
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per borough, so this is the exact answer rather than the borough's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.
| ZIP code | USDA zone | Nearest NOAA station | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99548 | 6b | none within range | — |
| 99549 | 5b | none within range | — |
| 99564 | 6b | none within range | — |
| 99565 | 6a | none within range | — |
| 99579 | 5a | King Salmon, AK | 69.8 km |
| 99606 | 4b | Iliamna AP, AK | 1.4 km |
| 99613 | 4a | Intricate Bay, AK | 73.4 km |
| 99625 | 4b | King Salmon, AK | 46.0 km |
| 99640 | 4a | Port Alsworth, AK | 89.5 km |
| 99647 | 4b | Port Alsworth 1 SW, AK | 37.7 km |
| 99648 | 6b | none within range | — |
| 99649 | 5a | none within range | — |
| 99653 | 4a | Port Alsworth 1 SW, AK | 4.4 km |
| 99695 | 6b | Sand Point 1 Ene, AK | 88.1 km |
ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.
When to start seeds in Lake and Peninsula Borough
Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 6 of them, because no one station speaks for the borough.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🧅 Green Onions | Start indoors | March 15 – April 9 | 8 wk before |
| 🌶️ Peppers | Start indoors | March 15 – April 9 | 8 wk before |
| 🥦 Broccoli | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🥬 Cabbage | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🥬 Collards | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🥬 Kale | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🥬 Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🫛 Peas | Direct sow | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🥬 Spinach | Direct sow | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🍠 Sweet Potato | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🍅 Tomatoes | Start indoors | March 29 – April 23 | 6 wk before |
| 🥬 Bok Choy | Start indoors | April 5 – April 30 | 5 wk before |
| 🥬 Kohlrabi | Start indoors | April 5 – April 30 | 5 wk before |
| 🥬 Swiss Chard | Start indoors | April 5 – April 30 | 5 wk before |
| 🥬 Arugula | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🥬 Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🥕 Beets | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🧅 Green Onions | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🥬 Mustard Greens | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🌶️ Okra | Start indoors | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🌱 Radishes | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🥔 Turnips | Direct sow | April 12 – May 7 | 4 wk before |
| 🥬 Cabbage | Set out | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥕 Carrots | Direct sow | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Collards | Direct sow | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Collards | Set out | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥒 Cucumbers | Start indoors | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🧅 Green Onions | Set out | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Kale | Direct sow | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Kale | Set out | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Kohlrabi | Direct sow | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Kohlrabi | Set out | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🎃 Pumpkins | Start indoors | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🎃 Summer Squash | Start indoors | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🎃 Winter Squash | Start indoors | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥒 Zucchini | Start indoors | April 19 – May 14 | 3 wk before |
| 🥬 Bok Choy | Direct sow | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🥬 Bok Choy | Set out | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🥦 Broccoli | Set out | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🌿 Cilantro | Direct sow | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🥬 Leaf Lettuce | Set out | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🥬 Swiss Chard | Direct sow | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🥬 Swiss Chard | Set out | April 26 – May 21 | 2 wk before |
| 🌿 Dill | Direct sow | May 3 – May 28 | 1 wk before |
| 🫘 Bush Beans | Direct sow | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🥒 Cucumbers | Set out | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🎃 Pumpkins | Direct sow | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🎃 Pumpkins | Set out | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🎃 Summer Squash | Direct sow | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🎃 Summer Squash | Set out | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🌽 Sweet Corn | Direct sow | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🍅 Tomatoes | Set out | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🎃 Winter Squash | Direct sow | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🎃 Winter Squash | Set out | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🥒 Zucchini | Direct sow | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🥒 Zucchini | Set out | May 17 – June 11 | 1 wk after |
| 🥒 Cucumbers | Direct sow | May 24 – June 18 | 2 wk after |
| 🌶️ Okra | Direct sow | May 24 – June 18 | 2 wk after |
| 🌶️ Okra | Set out | May 24 – June 18 | 2 wk after |
| 🌶️ Peppers | Set out | May 24 – June 18 | 2 wk after |
| 🫘 Southern Peas | Direct sow | May 24 – June 18 | 2 wk after |
| 🍠 Sweet Potato | Set out | May 24 – June 18 | 2 wk after |
Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.
What survives the winter changes across Lake and Peninsula Borough
Zone 6a carries 51 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 4a carries 34. The best number is not always the warmest zone — the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.
Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.
Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic
- Last spring freeze
- Plan to June 22 to be careful. Median May 10 – June 4 across 6 stations; April 26 is the optimistic end.
- First fall freeze
- Plan to August 28 to be careful. Median September 12 – October 18 across 6 stations; November 5 is the optimistic end.
NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.
The 6 stations behind these numbers
All 6 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 539 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole borough.
A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.
These are the stations this borough's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iliamna AP, AK | USW00025506 | May 10 | October 1 | 144 days |
| Intricate Bay, AK | USC00503933 | June 4 | September 12 | 98 days |
| King Salmon, AK | USW00025503 | May 26 | September 15 | 111 days |
| Port Alsworth 1 SW, AK | USW00026562 | June 2 | September 12 | 101 days |
| Port Alsworth, AK | USC00507570 | May 12 | September 24 | 134 days |
| Sand Point 1 Ene, AK | USW00025630 | May 11 | October 18 | 160 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
This page describes a whole borough. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.
Other places to compare
Lake and Peninsula Borough sits in Alaska. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other borough in it with a page here.
More of Alaska
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Trunk wrapZone 4a is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
- Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
- MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 4a, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.
County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this borough: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.