Fruit Trees for Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott and Owego, New York

Binghamton's official weather station sits at the airport, on the hill in the Town of Maine at about 1,600 feet, more than 700 feet above downtown. In the January 2005 cold snap it read −13°F while the Whitney Point Dam station, 9 miles away on the valley floor, read −23°F. When the May 10 and 11, 2010 freeze hit at apple bloom, Broome County reported lower-valley apples thinned while the upper hillsides looked untouched. Choosing fruit trees for Binghamton, Johnson City, Endicott and Owego starts with that split between river floor and hill.

The map covers Greater Binghamton and the Triple Cities along the North Branch Susquehanna, from Windsor and the Great Bend to Owego and Nichols, plus the Chenango north to Chenango Forks and Greene, the Tioughnioga to Whitney Point, Owego Creek to Newark Valley and Candor, and the hills of Maine, Union and Vestal. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The big number at each spot is its 30-year planning low, the cold night we'd size a tree to, built the same way as the number in our cold hardiness calculator. It leans cold on purpose: a safe number to plan around, not a forecast of how often that night comes. The MFTC zone is that low in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night there, the kind of figure USDA's map is built from, so USDA zones read warmer than ours. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Binghamton on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), the coldest 5 percent for −26°F or colder, and the warmest 5 percent for −19°F or warmer. Downtown, the reference point, plans for −25°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −10°F), right on the river floor. The warm end is hilltops like Poverty Knob west of Owego, Pollard Hill in Maine and Bornt Hill west of Endicott, 430 to 700 feet above their floors, at −18°F (MFTC 5a). The cold end is the valley floors at Greene, Whitney Point and Belden, at −27°F (MFTC 4a).

Why the map looks the way it does

This is the Allegheny Plateau, cut by long, fairly narrow valleys. The Susquehanna's floor at Binghamton sits at about 830 feet, and the uplands stand roughly 1,000 feet higher. Everything drains to the North Branch, which comes south past Windsor, loops through Pennsylvania at the Great Bend, turns back north to Binghamton, takes in the Chenango downtown and runs west past Johnson City, Endicott and Vestal to Owego. Side valleys feed it from both sides, the Chenango and Nanticoke and Owego creeks from the north, the Choconut creeks and Snake Creek from the south.

On a clear, calm night the hilltops lose heat to the sky, and the chilled air slides down into those valleys and pools on the floors. NWS Binghamton explains the branching valley fog you see at daybreak the same way, so that fog is a picture of the cold pool. The Whitney Point Dam station, at 1,040 feet on the floor, runs a median 5°F colder than the airport on the year's coldest night, though it sits about 550 feet lower, and in the January 2004 cold snap the dam read −20°F to the airport's −14°F.

Not every cold night works that way. When arctic air pours in deep or on a wind, no inversion forms and the hills lose their edge. On February 14, 2016 the airport hit −18°F while NWS Binghamton's spotters in the valleys read −12°F to −18°F. NOAA's old city station, in the valley at 909 feet, shows both kinds of night: in the February 1961 cold snap it read −19°F to the airport's −15°F, but in January 1965 it read −9°F to the airport's −12°F. The planning low draws on both. The spring layer is only the calm, clear-night picture, since that's the night that kills blossoms.

Within 3 miles of downtown the floor plans for −24°F and the benches 100 to 700 feet up for −21°F, and at bloom the gap is bigger: near the top of Mount Prospect above Ely Park, 570 feet over the floor, the map reads 15°F warmer than downtown. Along the river the floor gets milder going downstream as the valley opens out toward Owego (the name is said to mean "where the valley widens"), and cold air drains away where a valley opens. The floor from Endicott to Owego plans for −23°F to −24°F, and Nichols, on the river bottom at 788 feet, −22°F.

Clouds blunt all this. Binghamton averages about 190 cloudy or mostly cloudy days a year, and the FAO's frost protection manual says a low cloud deck cuts the ground's nighttime heat loss by roughly 85 to 90 percent, so the hill-and-floor split forms on fewer nights than in sunnier country. The clear nights still come, though, and they're the ones that do the damage. No big lake moderates this country, and reservoirs like Whitney Point Lake and the kettle ponds are too small to count on. Most of the valley floor is well-drained outwash sand and gravel, but the Chenango valley also holds kettles, closed hollows left where big ice blocks melted out of the glacial gravel, some of them peat bogs. A closed hollow fills with cold air up to its lowest notch before it spills, and peaty ground is frost prone.

Downtown Binghamton and the city neighborhoods

Downtown sits on the river flats at about 860 feet where the Chenango meets the Susquehanna and plans for −25°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −10°F). The Southside plans for −25°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown at bloom, the East Side −25°F (just into MFTC 4a), and the North Side −24°F. The First Ward plans for −23°F, and so does the West Side, on a toe slope 40 feet up along the Susquehanna and Riverside Drive. The hills change everything, since the city spans about 1,000 feet from river to ridgetop. Near the top of Mount Prospect, above Ely Park, the map reads −19°F (MFTC 5a). Park Terrace, 360 feet up the hills behind the Southside, plans for −22°F and reads 9°F warmer at bloom, and Summit Hill, at 1,612 feet, −20°F (MFTC 5a) and 11°F warmer.

On the flats, trees rated −30°F and colder give you room: Contender peach (Tom McCamant grows it at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, and it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F), Lapins sweet cherry, Italian plum and Northern Spy apple. Glowingstar and Redstar peaches and Stella sweet cherry, rated −25°F, clear the West Side and First Ward and sit right at the line downtown and on the Southside and East Side, so give them a south or west wall there. On the hills they clear with room, and near the tops even Bing cherry and Baldwin apple (−20°F) clear. Peaches and sweet cherries bloom early, so they belong up there.

Johnson City, Endwell and Endicott

Johnson City, once Lestershire, sits on the north bank at about 873 feet, 40 feet above the floor, plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −8°F) and reads 4°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Endwell plans for −23°F but reads 4°F colder at bloom, and so does West Corners, north of Endicott on NY-26. Endicott, where the Endicott Johnson factories went up on level land above the flood plain, plans for −23°F and reads even with downtown. North of the river the ground climbs fast. Deyo Hill, 570 feet above its floor, plans for −20°F and reads 14°F warmer at bloom, and Bornt Hill, 700 feet up, −18°F (MFTC 5a), among the warmest named places on the map. Choconut Center, on a bench 110 feet up, breaks the pattern at −23°F and 1°F colder at bloom, so check your own address.

With the Union floor at −23°F to −24°F, the −25°F trees clear and the −30°F trees have real room. On the floor, plant apples and the later bloomers: Honeycrisp, Zestar!® and Cortland apples, Montmorency tart cherry. Superior plum fits on a rise, and Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior (our pollination maps have the pairings). On Deyo or Bornt Hill, go with Risingstar peach, Red Gold nectarine and SnowCzar almond, and on Bornt Hill even Arctic Glo nectarine (−20°F) clears.

Vestal, Twin Orchards and the south hills

Vestal's main district sits flat on the floor at about 829 feet, plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −8°F) and reads 2°F colder than downtown at bloom. Twin Orchards, named for the big orchards that once lined both sides of its main road on the south bank, is river bottom at −24°F. The hills south of the river carry some of the warmest ground on the map. Roundtop, the bedrock hill on Vestal Road, plans for −20°F and reads 14°F warmer at bloom; Pierce Hill, 560 feet up, −19°F (MFTC 5a); Bunn Hill, at 1,735 feet, −19°F. Grippen Hill and Pierson Hill read 16°F warmer than downtown at bloom, among the warmest spring readings of any named place on the map. Vestal Center, about 4 miles south on Big Choconut Creek at 1,000 feet, plans for −24°F and reads 3°F colder, and across the line in Pennsylvania, Choconut reads 5°F colder and Brackney plans for −26°F (MFTC 4a).

This is the Triple Cities' apricot and pear ground. On the hills, Harlayne and Goldrich apricots (−30°F) clear by about 10°F, and so do Seckel and Harrow Sweet pears; Purvis Hardy English walnut (−25°F) clears the hilltops too. Down in Vestal and Twin Orchards, plant Golden Russet and Macoun apples, honeyberries and Red Lake currants.

Owego, Apalachin and the Owego Creek valley

Owego sits at about 814 feet where Owego Creek meets the river, on outwash terraces with at least 40 feet of gravel. It plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −9°F) and reads 1°F colder than downtown at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −24°F and the benches −20°F. Apalachin, across the river, plans for −23°F, and Tioga Terrace, 150 feet up east of Apalachin, −21°F and 3°F warmer at bloom. The hills are mild: South Owego, 320 feet up, plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a) and reads 10°F warmer at bloom, and Whittemore, on the east town line, −20°F and 12°F warmer. The cold runs up the creeks. Newark Valley and Berkshire plan for −26°F (MFTC 4a), West Newark reads 7°F colder than downtown at bloom, and Straits Corners, on an upland valley floor at 1,065 feet northwest of Owego, plans for −24°F but reads 8°F colder, the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map. Past Candor (−24°F) toward Ithaca, the Ithaca and Cortland map picks up.

Owego has held its Strawberry Festival every June since 1980, and Honeoye and Cavendish strawberries (−50°F and −40°F) fit the floor; cover them on a frosty bloom night. Pristine and Stayman Winesap apples and Concord grape (−30°F) clear the village floor. South Owego and Whittemore suit the −20°F trees like Flavortop nectarine. Up the creeks, plan for −26°F and lean on apples, which need only about 15 percent of their blossoms to set a crop: Frostbite and Wolf River.

Port Dickinson, Chenango Bridge and Maine

North of downtown the Chenango valley climbs gently. Port Dickinson plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −9°F) and Chenango Bridge −24°F, both about 1°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Hillcrest sits on a kame terrace at about 900 feet along the valley's east side, a little above the floor. Port Crane, the old canal port, is where it turns cold: −26°F (MFTC 4a) and 5°F colder at bloom. Chenango Forks plans for −25°F. Chenango Valley State Park holds Chenango Lake and Lily Lake, both kettles, with more to the north, some over 60 feet deep; keep blossoms out of hollows like those. West of the valley the Town of Maine is upland. East Maine, southwest of the airport, plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a) and Pollard Hill −18°F, while Nanticoke Creek is the cold line through the town: Maine hamlet plans for −25°F and Nanticoke −26°F, 6°F colder than downtown at bloom, and Castle Creek reads 6°F colder too.

Port Dickinson and Chenango Bridge suit plums like Brookgold and Pipestone, and Meteor tart cherry. Around Port Crane and up Nanticoke Creek, plant Kerr and Trailman applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these) and honeyberries, whose open flowers take 19°F. Put Westcot apricot (−45°F) and Gold sweet cherry (−35°F) on the hills, and on the Maine hilltops Mericrest nectarine (−20°F) clears.

Whitney Point, Triangle and Greene

The coldest valleys on the map are up here. Whitney Point sits at about 958 feet where the Otselic joins the Tioughnioga, just below the Whitney Point Lake dam, finished in 1942 after the 1935 and 1936 floods. The village plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a, typical winter −12°F) and reads 3°F colder than downtown at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −27°F and the benches −22°F. Triangle and Greene plan for −27°F too, and Itaska, in a draw between Whitney Point and Chenango Forks, reads 7°F colder at bloom. The way out is up: Coventry, on a bench 260 feet above its floor east of Greene, plans for −22°F and reads 7°F warmer than downtown.

Plan the valleys for −27°F. Prairie Spy and Sweet Sixteen apples (−40°F) give 13°F of room, and FE tart cherry clears easily. Pears and plums go on benches like Coventry's: Summercrisp and Ure pears, Mount Royal plum. Blushingstar peach (−30°F) clears too, and it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage, but keep it off the bottom. For the bottoms: Consort black currant, Boyne raspberry and aronia.

Kirkwood, Conklin, Windsor and the Great Bend

East and south of the city the river runs colder. Kirkwood village plans for −26°F (MFTC 4a, typical winter −11°F) and reads about even with downtown at bloom. Across the river, Conklin plans for −26°F and reads 3°F colder. The Kirkwood benches pay off: Kirkwood Center and Langdon, 100 feet up, plan for −24°F and read 5°F warmer at bloom, Brookvale (once Stanley Hollow) reads 8°F warmer, and Popes Ravine at the Binghamton line, at a point 300 feet up, plans for −21°F. Windsor village, on a toe slope near the river, plans for −26°F and reads 3°F warmer. Over the line, Great Bend and Hallstead plan for −26°F (MFTC 4a), while Hogback Hill above Great Bend, 520 feet up, reads 15°F warmer at bloom. Above Windsor, see the Oneonta, Delhi and upper Susquehanna map.

Plant this end for −27°F. On the Kirkwood benches and Hogback Hill, try Black Gold sweet cherry, Morden 604 apricot and Siberian C peach (−35°F), the hardiest peach we know of. It ripens very late, and frost pockets shorten the season at both ends, so keep it up on a bench. On the Conklin and Windsor flats, plant apples, Chestnut applecrab and bush fruit.

Spring frost and bloom in the valleys

Nearly everything we sell is rated −30°F or colder, and the coldest named places on this map plan for −27°F, so most of the list clears winter anywhere here. What decides the crop is a still, clear night in late April or May. On the spring layer the named hills mostly read 7°F to 16°F warmer than downtown, the city and Owego floors run within a few degrees of it, and the creek valleys, draws and upland flats read 4°F to 8°F colder (Straits Corners 8°F, Itaska and West Newark 7°F, Nanticoke and Castle Creek 6°F). NC State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one.

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the airport station, up on the hill at about 1,600 feet, a median last 32°F frost of April 30, May 19 or later one spring in ten, and 160 frost-free days. That's a hilltop in the warm layer, not the city floor's date, and no station on the Triple Cities floor has frost dates for those years. The nearest valley station that does is at Whitney Point Dam, on the floor at 1,040 feet: median last 32°F May 8, May 27 or later one year in ten, and 151 frost-free days. Both stations see their first fall 32°F around mid-October. On the river floors, plan on frost nights well into May.

The freezes that have hurt fruit here came in spring. In May 2010, with New York's apples reaching full bloom, Broome County dropped below freezing on May 10 and 11; lower-valley apples were thinned, upper hillsides looked unaffected and strawberry blooms turned black. April 2026 was worse: NWS Binghamton logged five straight nights below 32°F and a low of 17°F after crops had started budding, and Broome became one of 32 New York counties in a USDA disaster declaration, with freeze damage estimated at $30 million statewide.

So site comes first. Apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and pears go highest, on a slope that drains; apples, haskap and bush fruit go lower. Cornell's home fruit guide says the same as we do: stay out of low frost pockets, since in a hard freeze the middle and top of a slope can run several degrees warmer. Clear anything that dams cold air across the slope below your trees, like a hedge, a road fill or a tree line. An east-facing slope warms quickly on a frosty spring morning (Bob Purvis's rule), and frost cloth of 0.5 to 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F to 8°F.

What the weather records say

The Weather Bureau kept its office at the downtown post office from 1896 until 1951, then moved up to the new airport, so Binghamton's long record is a valley record before 1951 and a hilltop record after. NOAA's old city station, in the valley at 909 feet (1893 to 1967), holds the coldest reading on file for either Binghamton station, −28°F on January 17, 1893. The airport station, at 1,593 feet since 1952, has bottomed out at −20°F (January 15, 1957) and averages −8°F for the year's coldest night. In that 1957 cold snap the old Spencer 2 N station, at 1,050 feet near the map's edge, read −29°F, the coldest reading among the stations here.

The Whitney Point Dam station's record is −23°F (January 22, 2005) in 25 years, and its planning low, −25°F, is 2°F colder than anything it has recorded. A short-lived Endicott station logged −26°F in its nine years on file, colder than the −23°F Endicott plans for, so leave a few degrees of room on the lowest ground by the river.

Wikipedia gives Broome County as mainly USDA zone 5b. Our MFTC zone for downtown is 4b, a full zone colder, because USDA averages each winter's coldest night (downtown's typical winter is −10°F) while we plan for the bad one.

What you can grow here

Hills and benches, −22°F or warmer (the city and Vestal hills, Deyo and Bornt hills, the Maine hilltops, South Owego, Coventry). They read warm at bloom, so the early bloomers go here. Rated −25°F and colder, all clear: Glohaven peach, Hardired nectarine, Rainier sweet cherry, Tomcot apricot, D'Anjou and Clapp's Favorite pears, Montana Trial Persimmon. Where your number reads −20°F or warmer, the −20°F trees like Santa Rosa plum clear too; from −21°F to −22°F they're worth a try against a south wall.

The river floors, −23°F to −25°F (the Triple Cities, Owego, Port Dickinson, Chenango Bridge). The −25°F trees clear most of it and sit at the line on the coldest blocks. With room: Veteran peach on a rise, Liberty and Ashmead's Kernel apples, Stanley plum, La Crescent grape and Ben Lomond black currant.

The cold valleys, −25°F to −27°F (Kirkwood to Great Bend, Port Crane to Whitney Point and Greene, the Nanticoke and Owego Creek valleys). The −30°F trees clear with a few degrees to spare; the −25°F ones are only worth a try on a rise. Many of these read cold at bloom, so lean on Haralson apple, Evans Bali tart cherry, Montana Black Currant (we've never seen it take winter damage) and Pixwell gooseberry, with Toka plum on the higher edges.

Roots are the weak link. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage under snow, but bare frozen ground after a thaw is what kills roots, so mulch and hold the snow. Cornell asks for well-drained soil at least 8 inches deep, or raised beds, and a pH of 6.0 to 6.5. The outwash gravel drains; the lake clays north of the city and the wet bottoms may not, so dig a hole 2 feet deep, fill it, let it drain and refill it (under 10 hours is well drained). The floors flood (1935, 1936, 1972, 2006, 2011), so keep trees off ground that goes under. Cornell's New York problem list includes apple scab, fire blight, black knot, plum curculio, apple maggot, voles, deer and birds. We taper water from mid-August in zone 4 and colder so trees harden off before that mid-October freeze.

Fruit history here

Orchard fruit is one of the Southern Tier's leading farm products, though we've found little written fruit history for the Triple Cities. Apple Hills, a hill farm on Brooks Road in Binghamton, has been run by the Green family since 1848 and grows more than a dozen apple varieties for u-pick. Lone Maple Farm in Binghamton and Russell Farms in Brackney, Pennsylvania, both do apple picking.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Binghamton, NY?

Downtown Binghamton plans for −25°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −10°F. Wikipedia gives Broome County as mainly USDA zone 5b; USDA averages each winter's coldest night, while we plan for the bad one. The highest hills plan for −18°F to −19°F (MFTC 5a), and the valleys north and east of the city −26°F to −27°F (MFTC 4a).

When is the last frost in Binghamton?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the Binghamton airport station a median last 32°F frost of April 30, and one year in ten it comes May 19 or later. That station sits on a hilltop at about 1,600 feet, above the cold pool. The Whitney Point Dam station, on a valley floor, has a median of May 8, so on the river floors plan on frost nights well into May.

What fruit trees grow in Binghamton?

Most of what we sell. Downtown plans for −25°F, and nearly our whole list is rated −30°F or colder: apples like Honeycrisp and Northern Spy, tart cherries, Stanley and Superior plums, Lapins sweet cherry, Contender peach, pears, grapes and bush fruit. Put the early bloomers (apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums, pears) on hills or benches that read warm at bloom.

Can you grow peaches in Binghamton?

Yes. Contender, Veteran and Blushingstar (rated −30°F) clear every named place on the map. The −25°F peaches, like Glowingstar and Redstar, clear the hills and most of the Triple Cities floor and sit right at the line downtown. Plant peaches on a hill that reads warm at bloom, like Ely Park, Summit Hill or the Vestal hills.

Do the valleys or the hills frost first around Binghamton?

The valleys. On clear, calm nights cold air drains off the hills and pools on the floors. In the May 2010 freeze Broome County's lower-valley apples were thinned while upper hillsides looked unaffected, and on our spring layer most of the named hills read 7°F to 16°F warmer than downtown at bloom.

Where are the frost pockets around Binghamton?

On a still bloom night the coldest named places on the map are upland flats, creek valleys and draws: Straits Corners northwest of Owego (8°F colder than downtown), Itaska and West Newark (7°F colder), and Nanticoke and Castle Creek (6°F colder). For winter cold the worst are the valley floors around Whitney Point, Greene and Triangle at −27°F.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.