Fruit Trees for Elko, Spring Creek and the Ruby Mountains, Nevada

In the cold snap at the end of January 2002, the NOAA station north of Lamoille bottomed out at −30°F and the Elko airport at −19°F, while Crane Springs, at 6,400 feet just off this map, never went below 0°F. That 30°F spread across one corner of northeastern Nevada is the first thing to know about fruit trees for Elko, Spring Creek and the Ruby Mountains: the ground you plant on matters as much as the tree.

The map covers the Humboldt River valley from Moleen up through Osino Canyon to Halleck, plus Spring Creek, Pleasant Valley and Lamoille under the Rubies and the South Fork country toward Lee. 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 number is the 30-year planning low, the cold to plan for at that spot, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, and it leans to the safe side. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. "Typical winter" is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's zones are built on. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder each spot runs than Elko on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground here is −27°F (MFTC 4a), the same as Elko, the reference town, where a typical winter bottoms out around −9°F. The warm end is bench ground: Crestview −25°F (MFTC 4b), Pleasant Valley −24°F (4b), and the warmest tenth of the ground around Lamoille −19°F. The cold end is the South Fork basin and the upper Humboldt: South Fork −33°F (3b), Halleck −31°F (3b). Over the line in Idaho, see our Twin Falls and the Magic Valley map.

Why the map looks the way it does

Elko sits on the Humboldt River floor at about 5,050 to 5,100 feet, with the Adobe Range right to the northwest and the Elko Hills right to the southeast, both topping out around 7,500 feet, and the Ruby Mountains about 20 miles southeast. In this dry Great Basin high desert, clear nights are common. On those nights the ground radiates its heat to the sky and the chilled, heavy air slides off the ranges and pools on the floor under a lid of warmer air. The Weather Service office in Elko spelled it out in a 2003 study: clear, dry, calm nights and light drainage winds build a nightly inversion in valley sites like Elko. The early-morning wind blows down the valley from the northeast, the night's drainage air on the move, and the floor usually keeps the strongest winds out of town, which lets the inversion hold.

The cold collects in two big places. One is the Humboldt bottoms, from the river bottom east of downtown (−30°F, against −27°F mid-town) upstream to Halleck (−31°F). The other is the South Fork basin, where the South Fork runs off the Rubies into South Fork Reservoir, in a wide old river valley ringed by terraces and bluffs, then squeezes out through South Fork Canyon. Cold air backs up above a narrows like that, and a wide, shallow basin can pool harder than a deep valley that drains. NOAA station records back it up: the South Fork State Recreation Area station has run a median 8°F colder on the year's coldest night than the Elko airport, over 17 years. The reservoir is no help, since it freezes (by early December in 2022, with 12 to 18 inches of ice still on it in mid-March 2023).

Get up off the floor and it warms, up to a point. An old NOAA station at 6,293 feet in the Lamoille country (1918 to 1968) ran a median 11°F warmer on the year's coldest night than Elko, and on January 21, 1937, the morning Elko set its record of −43°F, it read −24°F. Crane Springs, at 6,400 feet, has the warmest record around (−11°F is its coldest on file). That's the thermal belt, the band of slope above the cold pool. It has a top: the Lamoille #3 station at 7,700 feet read −10°F in that 2002 snap. On the map, the top of Elko Mountain plans for −14°F, 13°F warmer than town, yet reads 4°F colder than Elko on a bloom night, because spring frost pools are shallow (the FAO's frost protection manual says they usually top out 30 to 200 feet up). Benches a few hundred feet up get the best of both seasons, which is why they read 8°F to 13°F warmer than Elko on the spring layer while the bottoms read 1°F to 5°F colder.

Spring Creek is the best-studied piece of this. For 1998 to 2002 the Elko Weather Service office compared the airport with a co-op station at 5,720 feet on a slope in Spring Creek, about 3 miles from the Rubies. Elko's monthly average low was colder in 56 of 57 months, by 4.4°F on average. The Spring Creek station sat near the top of the nightly inversion, and a steady southeast breeze draining off the Rubies kept the air stirred so cold couldn't settle.

Height alone doesn't buy that. The Lamoille 2N station, north of the village at 5,750 feet, sits about as high as that slope station, yet it runs a median 10°F colder than the Elko airport on the year's coldest night and gets only 65 frost-free days. In the 2002 snap it read −30°F while the Lamoille Yost station, 90 feet higher, read −15°F. We haven't found anything written on why, but its numbers look like a valley floor where drainage air off the mountains collects, under 84.4 inches of snow a year (air over deep snow runs colder). Where you sit relative to the low ground and the draws matters more than your elevation.

Downtown Elko, the Humboldt and the airport

The Elko point on the map, mid-town on the floor at 5,076 feet, plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), with a typical winter around −9°F. Within 3 miles the floor runs −27°F, the benches −25°F, the warmest tenth of the ground −24°F and the coldest tenth −29°F. The river strip through town, from west of Errecart Boulevard to past the 12th Street bridge, should run toward that cold tenth. NRCS describes the Humboldt country's saline bottomland soils as very deep, salty, alkaline silt loams (pH 7.4 to 11) with a seasonal high water table, so test before you plant. Pavement and buildings hold a little heat mid-town on a still night.

Gateway River Estates, on the bottom a little over a mile east, sits about 10 feet above the floor and plans for −30°F (MFTC 4a), with a spring reading 2°F colder than Elko. Downriver, Hunter plans for −29°F and Moleen −30°F. The airport station, at the west end of town, holds Elko's long NOAA record; the Elko NWS office station, 3 miles away and about 180 feet higher, has run a median 3°F colder on the year's worst night, yet its last spring frost comes a week earlier. Winter pools run deep; spring frost pools are shallow and catch the lowest ground. The map's −27°F for town is colder than anything the airport has recorded since 1995 (−22°F), but the same record holds −29°F from 1989 and −43°F from 1937.

Elko's west side: Crestview and Adobe Heights

The west side climbs toward the Adobe Range, and it's the warm side. Crestview, west-northwest of mid-town, sits on a bench 260 feet above the floor at 5,427 feet and plans for −25°F (MFTC 4b), the warmest of Elko's neighborhoods, with a typical winter around −7°F and a spring reading 9°F warmer than Elko. The airport station at this end carries the warmest 30-year number of the stations still reporting here, −24°F.

Adobe Heights, up on the Adobe Range slope at 5,729 feet, is the best spring ground in Elko: a 14 percent hillside 340 feet above the floor, where cold air slides past, reading 11°F warmer than Elko on a bloom night. It plans for −26°F (MFTC 4a). If I wanted apricots or sweet cherries in Elko, this is where I'd look, though open slopes take whatever an arctic front brings in on a wind.

East and south of town: Last Chance Ranch, Coin and Elko Summit

East of downtown the floor gets colder. Last Chance Ranch, on a hillside east-northeast of mid-town, 120 feet above the floor, plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), 2°F warmer than the −30°F floor around it, and its spring reading is 8°F warmer than Elko because it drains. Coin, out on the floor to the north, plans for −30°F and reads 2°F colder than Elko in spring.

Elko Summit, southeast of downtown toward the Elko Hills, is the trap. It's 260 feet above the floor at 5,478 feet, but it sits in a draw, and draws carry cold off the hills at night. It plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), no better than mid-town, though its spring reading is 4°F warmer than Elko and the warmest tenth of the ground nearby runs −22°F, so look to the side slopes. Don't run a hedge or fence across the bottom of your slope, since a cold layer only a few feet thick backs up behind it.

Spring Creek and Pleasant Valley

Spring Creek was built in the 1970s in three sections between the Elko Hills and the Rubies: the western section at the base of the Elko Hills, the central section with The Marina and the golf course, and the southern section around the Horse Palace, against the mountains. The ground drains northwest off the Rubies, so it climbs toward them.

The Spring Creek point on the map sits low, 40 feet above the local floor at 5,478 feet, and plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), with a typical winter around −11°F and a spring reading about even with Elko. Within 3 miles, though, the benches and slopes run −25°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −24°F. The low rise of Hog Tommy Hill, east of town and 280 feet above the floor, plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b) and reads 13°F warmer than Elko on a bloom night, the best spring number of any place on this page. Your lot's height above the nearest low ground counts for more than your section.

Spring Creek also got 45.5 inches more snow a year than Elko in that study, from storms lifting against the Rubies. That's good for roots: North Dakota State measured soil 12 inches down under snow at 31°F while the air above read 4°F. Voles are on the northern Nevada pest list, though, so guard every trunk.

Pleasant Valley, between Spring Creek and Lamoille at 5,854 feet, is the warmest neighborhood on this page in winter, tied with Hog Tommy Hill. It sits on a bench 140 feet above the floor and plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b), with a spring reading 4°F warmer than Elko and the warmest tenth of the ground within 3 miles at −19°F. That's ground for hardy apricots, plums and sweet cherries.

Lamoille and the foot of the Rubies

Lamoille sits at the end of the Lamoille Highway, 19 to 20 miles southeast of Elko, in Lamoille Valley on the west flank of the Rubies ("Nevada's Alps," the Las Vegas Review-Journal called them), at the gateway to Lamoille Canyon. The village point, at 5,904 feet and 180 feet above the floor, plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), with a typical winter around −13°F and a spring reading 5°F warmer than Elko. Within 3 miles the floor runs −29°F, the benches −24°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −19°F. The floor frosts early, too: Lamoille 2N's median first fall 32°F is August 24.

Osino, Ryndon, Elburz and Halleck: the upper Humboldt

Upstream, the Humboldt runs through Osino Canyon, and the floor runs colder than town. Osino, about 9 miles northeast of Elko, plans for −29°F (MFTC 4a); within 3 miles the floor runs −30°F and the benches −27°F. Ryndon, in Osino Canyon, plans for −30°F (4a), and a short-lived NOAA station there hit −29°F in only 8 years. Elburz plans for −29°F, and Halleck, at the I-80 and SR 229 interchange, −31°F (MFTC 3b), with a typical winter near −14°F, the coldest of the river towns. The warm ground here is the toe slopes and benches a hundred feet or more above the river, 3°F to 5°F warmer than the floor.

South Fork, Twin Bridges and the road to Lee

The South Fork of the Humboldt rises on the Rubies' west slope near Lee and runs northwest past Twin Bridges into South Fork Reservoir, 1,650 acres behind a 1988 dam that flooded the old Tomera Ranch's hay meadows. It's the coldest basin on the map. The South Fork point, on a toe slope 40 feet above the floor, plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b), and Coral Hill, Twin Bridges and Cottonwood −32°F (3b). The recreation area station's own 30-year number is −34°F, the coldest of the stations here. The map's −33°F is colder than anything that station has recorded since its record starts in 2005 (−28°F, in December 2015 and January 2017), and in a basin like this I'd plan for it anyway.

The spring layer splits the basin. The toe slope at the South Fork point reads 3°F warmer than Elko on a bloom night, since cold slides off it, while Coral Hill reads 5°F colder. Toward Lee, at 5,729 feet, the floor plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a) and reads 2°F colder than Elko in spring. The tree will live here if you pick it right, but the crop rides on bloom nights: this is apple, plum and bush fruit country, not apricot country.

Spring frost and bloom around Elko

Spring frost here runs into June. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last 32°F at the Elko airport on June 5, and one year in ten after June 21. The NWS office gets its last 32°F on May 29, South Fork and the Jiggs 2NE station on June 11, and Lamoille 2N on June 17. Crane Springs has the longest season around, 123 frost-free days, and even that is short-season country by the University of Vermont's yardstick (under 135), so lean toward early and midseason kinds.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F (Michigan State's figure), and the median last 28°F is May 14 at the airport, May 20 at South Fork and May 26 at Lamoille 2N. The early bloomers (apricots, peaches, plums, sweet cherries) take the most risk, so they go on the benches reading 8°F to 13°F warmer than Elko (Hog Tommy Hill, Adobe Heights, Crestview, Last Chance Ranch). The bottoms reading 1°F to 5°F colder are apple and bush fruit ground, since 3°F to 4°F can separate a full crop from none (NC State's numbers).

Most fruit can lose half its blossoms or more with little effect unless it's clustered (cherries, grapes), since frost acts as natural thinning, and the University of Minnesota says only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set. Haskap (our Honeyberry) is the safest bloomer: fully open flowers take 19°F.

Site first, then: stone fruit on your highest, best-drained bench ground, apples and pears lower, haskap and currants anywhere. Bob Purvis's rule is that an east slope is ideal because it warms fast on a frosty morning. On frost nights, cover small trees from late afternoon to morning (frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F), water a day or two ahead, keep the grass mowed short through bloom, and don't till.

What the weather records say

NOAA's long Elko record, filed under the airport station, back to 1893, holds a record low of −43°F on January 21, 1937. The worst outbreaks on file came in the 1930s: −38°F on December 12, 1932, −37°F on February 10, 1933, and that −43°F, while the old station at 6,293 feet in the Lamoille country read −22°F, −22°F and −24°F. On December 11, 1972, the Rand Ranch Palisade station just off the map read −39°F to Elko's −28°F.

In the outbreaks since 2000 the coldest readings came from the outlying valley and basin stations, not town. At the end of December 2015, South Fork read −28°F to the airport's −17°F, and at the end of January 2023 Lamoille 2N hit −31°F while the airport read −14°F, 17°F apart in the same cold snap. Elko's nights at or below 0°F have run from none in a year (2003) to 45 (1949).

On zones, a nursery page aimed at Elko calls it USDA zone 5b to 6a. USDA's zones are built on the average of each winter's coldest night; the map's typical winter mid-town is about −9°F, and the airport's average yearly low over its whole record is −15°F. We plan for the bad night: −27°F in town (MFTC 4a) and −30°F to −33°F in the bottoms and the South Fork basin (MFTC 4a to 3b). That's why our zones read more than a full zone colder than USDA's.

What you can grow here

Moana Nursery in Reno ranks tree fruit for northern Nevada this way: apples most reliable, then pears, plums, cherries and peaches, with apricots and nectarines last. With frost into June, I'd hold to that here. Everything below has come through at least the cold of its band.

Benches and slopes that plan for −25°F or warmer

Crestview, Pleasant Valley, Hog Tommy Hill and the bench ground above Spring Creek and Lamoille. Early bloomers go here, highest ground first.

• Apricots, on the highest bench: Westcot (has come through −45°F) and Debbie's Gold (−50°F). The trees will live; the crop is a gamble, and Utah State says apricots in that state's cold spots fruit about 1 year in every 5 or 6.
• Sweet cherries: Lapins (−35°F), the hardiest we've found, and Rainier (−30°F), which likes dry air since it cracks where it rains at ripening.
• Plums: Italian (−35°F), plus Superior (−35°F) with Toka (−45°F) as its pollenizer (our pollination maps show what pollenizes what).
• Pears: Bartlett (−35°F) and D'Anjou (−30°F), hardier than you'd think.
• Worth a try on the warmest bench: Contender peach (−30°F), the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F; Tom McCamant grows it at Forbidden Fruit in Paradise, Montana.

The Elko floor, Spring Creek's low ground and Lamoille, −26°F to −30°F

Most of town, the Spring Creek floor, Lamoille village, Elko Summit, Last Chance Ranch, Lee, Osino, Elburz, Ryndon and Gateway River Estates. Everything here has come through −30°F or colder.

• Apples: Honeycrisp and Haralson (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F).
• Applecrabs: Kerr (−50°F), our pick if you only plant one tree, and Centennial (−50°F), which showed zero winter injury at Ed Schultz's after a −47°F winter.
• Pear and plum: Summercrisp (−40°F) and Toka (−45°F).
• Tart cherry: Evan's Bali, good to at least −40°F to −45°F.
• Currants: Montana Black Currant (−50°F), which fruited well for us in 2026 after its flower buds saw about 22°F, and the native Golden Currant (−50°F), which Elko's river plan lists for the Humboldt floodway.

The South Fork basin, Halleck and the coldest bottoms, −31°F to −33°F

South Fork, Coral Hill, Twin Bridges, Cottonwood, Halleck and the coldest river-bottom lots. Everything here has come through −45°F or colder, which leaves room for a bad winter in a basin.

• Applecrabs and apples: Rescue (−60°F), Norda and Parkland (−50°F).
• Pears: Krasnobokaya (−50°F) and Vekovaya (−45°F).
• Plum and cherry: Brookred and the dwarf cherry Romeo (−50°F).
• Bush fruit: Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant (we've never seen winter damage on it), Sophia Groundcover raspberry and Buffaloberry (all −50°F).

Rootstocks, soil, water and site

Roots are the weak link: dormant apple roots are seriously hurt near 10°F while the wood above takes about −40°F. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage, under snow. On bare or windswept ground, mulch and keep the soil moist into winter. A northern Nevada grower favors MM111 for clay. Valley-floor soils here run alkaline and often saline or sodic, so test drainage: dig 2 feet, fill, let it drain, refill, and under 10 hours is well drained.

Drip is the only irrigation we advise for fruit trees in dry country, and in zone 4 and colder (nearly all the growing ground here) we taper water from mid-August so trees harden off before the first fall frost (a median September 15 at the airport); an early freeze kills at temperatures a January tree shrugs off. Elko's 30°F winter day-to-night swings make sunscald a risk, so paint trunks with white interior latex diluted 50 percent in late autumn. Montana State recommends an uphill spot on a 4 to 8 percent grade where cold air won't settle. Codling moth and fire blight top the northern Nevada pest list.

Fruit history here

The written fruit history is thin. Lamoille Valley was settled in 1865 by John Walker and Thomas Waterman, who named it after his native Vermont, and a 2014 Review-Journal feature on Lamoille mentions its "gnarled orchards." We didn't find a commercial orchard, u-pick or cidery around Elko, Spring Creek or Lamoille, and a 2024 survey of pioneer apple trees in northern Nevada found none near Elko.

Questions people ask

When is the last frost in Elko, Nevada?

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 median for the last 32°F frost at the Elko airport is June 5, and one year in ten it comes after June 21. The last 28°F, the one that starts killing open blossoms, comes about May 14, and the Lamoille 2N station runs later (May 26 for 28°F, June 17 for 32°F).

What growing zone is Elko, Nevada?

We plan for −27°F in mid-town Elko, MFTC 4a, and −30°F on the river bottoms east of town. A nursery page aimed at Elko calls it USDA zone 5b to 6a. USDA's zone is based on an average winter (the map's typical winter in town is about −9°F); ours is built on the bad night we plan for.

Is Spring Creek warmer than Elko?

At night, on the slopes, yes. A 1998 to 2002 Weather Service study found Elko's monthly average lows 4.4°F colder than a Spring Creek slope station's, because cold drains off the slope and pools in the Humboldt valley. Spring Creek's low ground plans for −27°F to −28°F, about like Elko, while its benches plan for −25°F and Pleasant Valley −24°F.

Why does Elko get so cold at night?

It sits on the Humboldt valley floor at about 5,050 feet in dry high-desert air, between ranges that top out around 7,500 feet. On clear, calm nights cold air drains off the slopes and pools there under an inversion. Elko's record −43°F, on January 21, 1937, came the same morning the old Lamoille station at 6,293 feet read −24°F.

Can you grow apples in Elko?

Yes. Apples are the most reliable tree fruit in northern Nevada, and Lamoille has old orchards. On the floor, pick one that has come through −30°F or colder (Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!®, or Kerr applecrab), favor early and midseason kinds for a 90 to 105 day frost-free season, and plant off the river bottom.

Where are the frost pockets around Elko and Spring Creek?

The river bottoms through and east of Elko (Gateway River Estates plans for −30°F), the upper Humboldt floor toward Osino, Ryndon and Halleck (−29°F to −31°F), the low ground around South Fork Reservoir (−32°F to −33°F), the Lamoille Valley floor near the Lamoille 2N station, and draws like the one at Elko Summit.

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.