Growing apricots where winters hit -30F

Apricots will crop where winters hit -30F and colder, but what usually costs you the crop is April frost and midwinter thaws, not the low itself. We graft most of ours on Manchurian apricot roots and lean on two kinds of trees: prairie apricots like Westcot and Morden 604, which have come through -40F and colder, and late bloomers like Zard, Wayne, Precious and Dr 606. Then we site them where cold air drains away.

April frost and midwinter thaws do the damage

Frost at bloom is the biggest hurdle, because apricots are generally the first fruit trees to bloom, with almonds and Japanese plums close behind. Bob Purvis called April frost the greatest challenge in growing them. At full bloom, apricot blossoms actually take cold better than other tree fruit blossoms, he noted. They just open first.

The second problem is dormancy. Several days in the mid-40s or warmer in December, January or February can deharden apricot flower buds. A sudden drop to 0F after that leaves most buds alive, but bud kill climbs fast with each degree below zero and approaches 100% below -12F for most varieties. After an unusually warm January in 2005-06, Purvis's place in Cottage Grove, Minnesota hit -15F. His Hargrand, Harlayne and Jerseycot lost a lot of flower buds, and his Morden 604, Debbie's Gold and Brookcot lost very few.

Where to plant an apricot

Put it in full sun, on a slope but not in a hollow or on a windy hilltop, so cold air can drain away. Purvis liked a north-facing slope because it warms up slowly in spring and holds bloom back, and he rated an east slope over a west one, partly for the early sun on frosty April mornings. In the spring 2026 frost, a grower friend in Gallatin Gateway saw 15F at bloom and got no fruit at all, while growers higher on the valley floor and up on the benches fared much better.

Well drained is the key phrase for soil, though it doesn't have to be sandy. Apricots tolerate calcareous and alkali soils far better than sweet cherries, peaches, pears or apples, and Purvis never saw one with lime-induced chlorosis in central Washington. High sodium or boron is another story. They're also among the most drought-tolerant fruit trees, though they do better with some irrigation in dry country.

What Bob Purvis recommended for Montana

In his 2006 talk to the North American Fruit Explorers, Purvis sorted apricots by region. For North Dakota and Montana:

• Zone 3: the four prairie-province apricots, Brookcot, Debbie's Gold, Morden 604 and Westcot. Suphany and Precious are nearly as cold-hardy and more tolerant of spring frost.
• Zone 4: the Harrow series, Jerseycot, Alfred, Tomcot and Puget Gold, which was cropping in Nebraska after -23F. Dr 606, Chinese and Henderson are worth a try in most of zone 4, and Tomcot in 4b, where Don Birkholz grew it in southern Montana.

Dave Griffin and others in central Minnesota found those four, especially Westcot, fully hardy through zone 3 and into the warmer parts of zone 2. John Fuerst grew Zard successfully in southwestern Minnesota, in the colder half of zone 4. Of the Harrow apricots, Harlayne was the hardiest, to -34F on the leaf buds and about -30F on the flower buds.

Prairie apricots or late bloomers

We grow both, because they solve different problems. The prairie apricots take the deepest cold. Purvis reports Westcot surviving -48F near Bemidji, Minnesota, and Morden 604 cropping after its buds saw -42F. But they bloom early. At his frost-prone place in Selah, Washington, Purvis lost his prairie apricot crop in 1998 while later varieties had a moderate crop, and our own notes on Morden 604 say the colder you are, the more it's feast or famine.

Late bloomers dodge more of the frost. Zard, an old Persian apricot whose name means "yellow" in Farsi, has a long rest period, resists fluctuating winter temperatures, blooms very late and needs a lot of heat to wake up. It has taken -33F in southwestern Minnesota and still borne a full crop, and Purvis puts its midwinter hardiness in the low -40s. Wayne, a Manchurian seedling selected by Al Precht, blooms very late too, and Precious handles late spring frost unusually well. Long-chill varieties like Zard also tend to sleep through midwinter warm spells.

Our apricots and their pollenizers

Here's every apricot we sell, by bloom group. Groups run from 1 (very early) to 7 (very late) and only compare apricots with apricots. An asterisk marks a bloom group that's our best estimate. The four on Lovell are commercial varieties for warmer spots that don't drop below about -30F.

Goldrich, Perfection, Harlayne and Sungold won't set a crop alone, so plant a different apricot in the same bloom group or one group apart, within about 100 feet. Goldrich and Perfection bloom together but don't match, since Utah State University and Van Well Nursery both say Perfection won't pollenize Goldrich. For Harlayne, Purvis found Harogem (which we don't carry) a good pollenizer in Minnesota, and Precious is a good pick from our list. Two is still good insurance for the rest, because even self-fertile apricots can set thin in a cold spring when the bees barely fly. Our apricot pollination map shows every workable pair.

Pruning and thinning

Expect first fruit in the third or fourth season in the ground. Purvis knew of no apricot that takes more than five years under average conditions. They bloom first on spurs on 2-year and older wood, then on last year's wood. A spur stays fruitful 3 to 4 years, longer if you thin it to one fruit.

1. Prune in mid to late May, after the fruit sets. You can see the crop by then, and some experts Purvis cited say the cuts heal faster.
2. Thin at dime to quarter size, down to one fruit per spur.
3. Keep the middle of the tree open. Shaded apricot spurs quit bearing.
4. In August or September, nip off shoot tips that are still growing. It sends the tree's energy into next year's flower buds, and Purvis saw thin, late shoots winterkill even in zone 6.

Train scaffolds to 45 to 60 degree crotch angles. Zard grows very upright and needs training early. On Manchurian roots, plan on about 15 feet between trees.

Feeding and water

Go easy on nitrogen. Purvis warned that too much pushes rank growth that shades the fruit in May and June. We put no nitrogen fertilizer in the planting hole, just a third compost to native soil plus bone meal, and we don't feed through the roots into July. Foliar feeds can go on until early August, about when next year's flower buds start to form.

Purvis called zinc, calcium and boron very important for apricots. Zinc and boron go on best as foliar sprays, and calcium can go to the soil as lime or gypsum. Phosphate is rarely needed after planting and can block zinc uptake. Fertilizers are salts that can hurt young roots, and we don't use synthetic fertilizer at all.

Water a new tree deeply at least once a week, twice in summer heat. In zone 4 and colder, taper from mid-August, stop by late August, and give one final drink after leaf drop.

Harvest, squirrels and birds

An apricot is ripe when it's soft and juicy and comes off the stem easily. In Missoula, Westcot ripens from the last week of July into the first week of August. Purvis suggests half-drying apricots and then freezing them, which makes them far easier to chew than fruit leather. Squirrels hadn't developed a taste for apricots in Purvis's orchards, but sweet-pit apricots like Harcot and Precious are highly attractive to them, so watch those and our other sweet-kernel apricots, Zard and Chinese. For birds, flash tape and scare-eye balloons greatly cut the damage for Purvis in Washington. A grower in Haines, Alaska found shiny tape didn't help and that netting works on cherries, so netting is the fallback.

How we grow apricots

We pick prairie apricots and late bloomers and keep them out of frost pockets. We graft on Manchurian, the hardiest apricot root there is. We grow seedlings alongside grafted trees. And we never use anything ending in "cide."

The seedlings are where we select for more hardiness. With Luke's Antifreeze Protein Selection method, we freeze and thaw the seeds during stratification, plant only the survivors, then leave the young potted trees out through a natural freeze-thaw winter with no protection. After two years of culling, the survivors' roots have taken -25F or colder unprotected. Our 3rd and Myrtle trees are grafted from the best of those seedlings, grown from a 40-year-old Missoula tree, and our Zard seedlings are the first Zard population we've grown in Montana. Montana Mango, a wild, probably Manchurian seedling that has grown in Missoula for at least 75 years, is one of Luke's two favorite apricots, with Zard. Purvis gave the same advice years ago: find a good bearing apricot in your neighborhood and propagate it on Manchurian seedling roots.

Related guides

• How we rate cold hardiness, and how to read our zone ratings
• Training young fruit trees and the cat, goat and calf rule
• Why we grow seedlings alongside grafted trees

Where this comes from

Bob Purvis, "Apricots: A Wider Geographical Possibility," his lecture at the August 2006 North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX) conference (non-chemical parts only), and his Fruit Growing for Homeowners lecture notes. Our apricot pollination map, rootstocks page, planting guide, product records and field notes, including the 2026 frost season. Utah State University and Van Well Nursery on Goldrich and Perfection. R. Goldberg, A Brief Guide to Growing Fruit Trees In and Around Haines, Alaska.

Updated September 2026.