Cold Hardy Cider Apple Trees

Cold hardy cider apple trees and crabs for zone 2 to 4 winters, shipped bare root to 45+ states. These are the trees we'd plant for hard cider in cold country: true cider apples, russets and old pippins for sugar and aroma, and crabs and applecrabs for the acid and tannin most apples can't give you up here.

Not sure where to start? Here's a three tree set by zone. In zone 2, Kerr (16.5 Brix, 9.5 g/L acid in the Saskatchewan juice trials) with Trail and a sweet apple. In zone 3, Golden Russet (SG up to 1.066), Franklin and Kerr. In zone 4, add Binet Rouge, a Normandy bittersweet with 0.21% tannin. Every tree carries its juice numbers and the zone we rate it from real winters, and you can try any mix in our hard cider calculator before you buy.

Shop by class: bittersharp, bittersweet, sharp or sweet. Shop by winter: zone 3 cider apples. For the why behind each pick, read which apples make good cider and our guide to crabs for hard cider. Pears and blending fruit are in all fruit for hard cider.

Questions we get

Which cider apples are hardiest?

The crabs. Dolgo and Trail are rated zone 1b, Trailman took -47F near Bozeman with no damage, and Kerr took -47F in Gallatin Gateway with a little limb damage. Of the true cider apples, Franklin, Binet Rouge and Golden Russet are rated zone 3.

Do I need a pollenizer?

Yes. Almost every apple and crab needs a different variety blooming at the same time, in the same bloom group or the one next to it. Triploids like Ribston Pippin and Roxbury Russet need two. Crabs make great pollenizers, so a cider orchard usually covers itself; each product page lists its bloom group and partners.

What rootstock and size?

Our full size trees on Dolgo or Malus baccata roots grow about 20 to 30 feet tall unpruned and are as hardy as apple roots get. Bud 118 is semi-dwarf in our dry Montana soils, about 12 to 18 feet. Each product page says which rootstocks that variety comes on this spring.

How many trees do I need?

A mature apple tree gives about 16 gallons of juice a year by our rule of thumb, a crab closer to 11. Plan your gallons in the calculator and it works out the trees.

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