Fruit Trees for Indianapolis, Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville and Greenwood, Indiana

On January 28, 1963, the old Indianapolis city station read −7°F. In the same cold snap the airport station read −18°F, the Riverside station down by the White River −18°F, and the Martinsville station, low in the White River valley just south of the map, −24°F. That's what growing fruit trees for Indianapolis, Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville and Greenwood comes down to: where cold air goes on a still night, and where it sits. The map runs from Lebanon and Whitestown east to Fortville, and from Cicero south to Whiteland and Mooresville.

By our standards this is mild country. The coldest named place on the map plans for −22°F, and nearly everything we sell has come through colder than that, so across most of Central Indiana the winter low doesn't decide what lives. Spring frost decides what crops, and it settles in the bottoms along the White River, Fall Creek and the smaller creeks while the ground above them stays clear. 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 is the 30-year planning low, the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, adjusted for the lay of the land: a safe number to plan on, not the record and not a promise of how often it comes. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's zone map is built on. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Indianapolis on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown, our reference, plans for −16°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −3°F. The middle of the map's growing ground plans for −18°F, and nine tenths of it falls between −21°F and −16°F. The warm end is the city: Lawrence at −15°F (zone 5b), Fountain Square, Castleton and downtown Fishers at −16°F. The cold end, zone 4b, is the till uplands of southeastern Boone County: Whitestown −22°F, Lebanon and Zionsville −21°F. The spring layer spreads wider. On a still bloom night the named places we checked run from 6°F colder than downtown (Woods at Shelborne, in a creek bottom on Carmel's west side) to 11°F warmer (Robb Hill, in the hills south of Mooresville).

Why the map looks the way it does

This is the Tipton Till Plain, flat to gently rolling ground the Laurentide ice sheet left behind, from about 640 feet in the bottoms of the southwest corner to about 950 feet in Boone County. Everything drains to the West Fork of the White River, which runs past downtown toward Martinsville, picking up Fall Creek from the northeast, Eagle Creek from the northwest and White Lick Creek to the southwest. Downtown sits on one of its sand and gravel outwash terraces, on the east bank. On a clear, calm night the cold follows that grain into the bottoms, but with so little relief, the city's heat and the open farmland's lack of it count as much as the lay of the land.

The city is the biggest warm spot on the map. In that 1963 cold snap the old city station read −7°F against −18°F at the airport, and in February 1951, −11°F against −19°F. Over 46 years with both on file, Whitestown ran a median 5°F colder on the year's coldest night than the city station. Pavement and masonry store the day's heat, buildings block the open sky and heated buildings leak, and it counts most on the calm, clear nights that bring the hardest lows. In 1989 Mark DeLisi, at the Weather Service's Indianapolis office, tested his colleagues' belief that the forecast guidance ran too cold on overnight lows when the wind blew from the city (we haven't seen his results). On the map the old neighborhoods around downtown plan for −15°F to −17°F, and the flat ground past the suburbs −19°F to −22°F.

Whitestown is the cold end of that. Its station sits at 941 feet, about 150 feet above the airport, and still runs 4°F colder than the Eagle Creek airport and Carmel 3 E (about 190 feet lower) and 3°F colder than Castleton 2 S. On a still night height isn't what makes cold. Most of a cold pool's chill is made right where it sits, as open ground loses its heat to a clear sky, and a wide, shallow stretch of flat ground with nowhere to drain, far from town, can pool harder than a valley that drains. Lebanon plans for −21°F, Ulen and Pittsboro −20°F.

The river bottoms are the other cold sink: the lowest ground, where the cold drains in and sits. The Riverside station, at 695 feet near the river, read −18°F in the 1963 snap, 11°F colder than the city station. The Martinsville station, at 592 feet the lowest near the map, read −35°F on January 19, 1994, against −27°F at the airport. New Whiteland, 60 feet lower than the Indianapolis southeast side station, runs a median 4°F colder than it.

Up off the floor is the warm ground, and the spring layer shows it best. Woodstock, 60 feet above the White River floor, reads 3°F warmer than downtown on a still bloom night, and Rocky Ripple, on the river floor nearby, 4°F colder: 56 feet of height, about 7°F at bloom. On spring frost nights the cold layer usually tops out 30 to 200 feet up, so a little height goes a long way. Only in the southwest corner, around Mooresville, Monrovia and Brooklyn, does the land stand well above its creeks: within 3 miles of those towns the slopes 100 to 700 feet up plan for −16°F over a −19°F to −20°F floor, and the hilltops read 10°F to 11°F warmer than downtown at bloom.

Water doesn't help much. The big waters are three water supply reservoirs, Geist (about 1,900 acres, mostly 10 feet deep or less), Morse and Eagle Creek, and people ice fish on Geist; a lake only shelters its shore while it's open. The old Geist Reservoir station near Oaklandon ran a median 3°F colder than the Indianapolis southeast side station over 36 years. And all of this is the calm night pattern. In one early-bloom spring, about 10 mph of overnight wind kept the frost off Tuttle Orchards, just east of the map near Greenfield, at a 34°F low, and in a windy arctic freeze higher ground runs colder, not warmer.

Downtown, Fountain Square, Irvington and the near-in neighborhoods

Downtown sits on that outwash terrace, 20 feet above the local floor, and it's some of the warmest winter ground in Indy: −16°F, MFTC zone 5a, typical winter −3°F, with the floor within 3 miles at −17°F and no bench ground at all. The old neighborhoods ride the same heat. Irish Hill plans for −15°F, and Fountain Square, Fletcher Place, Holy Cross, St. Joseph, Woodruff Place, Chatham-Arch and the Old Northside −16°F. Fall Creek Place, down at 714 feet near Fall Creek, plans for −17°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown at bloom. Irvington, the old streetcar suburb on the east side, sits higher on the till at 805 feet; it plans for −17°F and reads about even at bloom, and Emerson Heights, Christian Park and Little Flower plan for −17°F too.

Everything we sell but the fig clears this ground, and the −20°F group has 3°F or more to spare: Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum, Flavortop and Fantasia nectarines, Baldwin and St. Edmund's Pippin apples and Javid's Iranian Almond (all −20°F). The catch downtown is spring. Town trees bloom earlier and a south wall blooms first of all, so keep apricots and peaches off the warmest wall.

Broad Ripple, Butler-Tarkington, Meridian-Kessler and the White River north

North of 18th Street the old Central Canal still carries water through Riverside, Butler-Tarkington, Rocky Ripple and Broad Ripple, and along this stretch of the White River height above the floor is everything. Broad Ripple Village, beside the river at about 725 feet, is a river bottom on the map, 0 feet above the floor: −18°F, typical winter −6°F, 2°F colder than downtown at bloom. Rocky Ripple plans for −18°F and reads 4°F colder; Riverside, Wellington and Ravenswood plan for −18°F and read 2°F to 3°F colder; Forest Hills reads 4°F colder.

Climb 50 to 70 feet and it's a different place. Butler-Tarkington and Mapleton plan for −16°F, and Meridian-Kessler −17°F and about even at bloom. On the higher ground above the river, Woodstock plans for −16°F and reads 3°F warmer, Highwoods and Spring Hills −17°F and 3°F to 4°F warmer, Wynnedale −17°F and 3°F warmer, and North Crows Nest, 70 feet up, 6°F warmer. Nora, Meridian Hills and Williams Creek plan for −17°F and read 1°F warmer. Up there, plant the early bloomers: Goldrich and Harlayne apricots (−30°F), Contender peach (−30°F), Lapins (−35°F) and Rainier (−30°F) sweet cherries and Superior plum (−35°F). Down in Broad Ripple and Rocky Ripple, plant apples and bush fruit, and keep pears off the bottom, since they bloom early.

Castleton, Lawrence, Fort Harrison and Geist along Fall Creek

Fall Creek comes in from the northeast through Geist Reservoir, runs 3.5 miles through Fort Harrison State Park in a steep-walled valley cut by glacial meltwater, and joins the White River at 10th Street. Lawrence, 50 feet above its floor, plans for −15°F, MFTC zone 5b, typical winter −3°F, even with downtown at bloom, over a −17°F floor. Castleton, a town until 1992, plans for −16°F and reads 1°F warmer; Brendonwood and Fairwood Hills, 60 and 80 feet above the floor, plan for −17°F and read 3°F warmer. Down in the valley, Avalon Hills, on a draw, reads 4°F colder at bloom and Millersville, on a river bottom, 2°F colder.

Geist is a split case. The neighborhoods around the reservoir plan colder than the rest of the northeast side (Masthead of Geist Harbours −19°F to −20°F, Indian Lake and Trilobi Hills −19°F, Fall Creek Highland −20°F, zone 4b), which fits the old Geist Reservoir station; it bottomed out at −23°F in January 1994. Yet at bloom the lots on the slopes above the water read warm: Indian Lake 6°F warmer than downtown, Trilobi Hills and Fall Creek Highland 5°F warmer. Winter's worst comes on arctic nights, when cold air fills the whole Fall Creek basin; a still spring night sorts the ground by height above the bottom. Upstream, Luxhaven, on a river bottom, reads 5°F colder. Geist's slopes are the place for Glohaven (−25°F) and Contender peaches, the apricots and Stella sweet cherry (−25°F).

Carmel, Westfield, Zionsville and Whitestown

Carmel runs from the White River to the Boone County line and plans for −17°F, MFTC zone 5a, 2°F colder than downtown at bloom, with the floor within 3 miles at −18°F and the warmest tenth of the growing ground at −16°F. Home Place plans for −17°F. On the west side toward Zionsville the creek bottoms are the frost pockets: Woods at Shelborne plans for −17°F but reads 6°F colder than downtown at bloom, the coldest spring reading of any named place we checked, and Abney Glen reads 5°F colder. Nathaniel Creek and The Woods at Lions Creek, on low ground nearer Zionsville, plan for −21°F and read 3°F to 4°F colder.

Westfield plans for −19°F, typical winter −6°F, 1°F colder than downtown at bloom. Zionsville, the old "Dahlia City," plans for −21°F, zone 4b, typical winter −8°F. Its town point sits on the valley floor at 843 feet, 0 feet above it, but the warmest tenth of the growing ground within 3 miles plans for −17°F. Whitestown's typical winter is −8°F. Around Zionsville, Whitestown and Lebanon the −20°F group is only worth a try, on your highest, most sheltered lot; everything rated −25°F or colder clears. As of a 2014 list, Gene Wild's apple farm in Zionsville kept about 800 apple varieties. Honeycrisp (−45°F), Ashmead's Kernel (−35°F), Northern Spy (−30°F) and Golden Russet (−40°F) fit with room, and the creek bottoms are for apples, not apricots.

Fishers, Noblesville and Cicero up the White River

Fishers sits on the West Fork in southeast Hamilton County. The town point, 50 feet above the floor, plans for −16°F, typical winter −4°F, 1°F colder than downtown at bloom, and downtown Fishers is −16°F too, over a −17°F floor. The cold ground follows the river and its creeks, Cheeney Creek and Mud Creek: Trails End, on a draw at 736 feet, plans for −18°F and reads 6°F colder at bloom, and Northwood Hills, on the floor, 3°F colder.

Noblesville sits on the White River at 771 feet, and its town point is a river bottom: −19°F, typical winter −7°F, 1°F colder at bloom. Federal Hill, a little way up the slope, plans for −18°F and reads 1°F warmer, and West Noblesville, on the river bottom, 2°F colder. Morse Reservoir, Cicero Creek dammed in 1956, covers about 1,500 acres, and Cicero plans for −19°F with a typical winter of −7°F. On the river floor, bush fruit is the right call: honeyberry (−50°F), whose open flowers take 19°F, Montana Black Currant (−50°F) and Boyne raspberry (−50°F).

Greenwood, Southport, Beech Grove and the south side

Greenwood is flat to gently rolling, and its own Pleasant Run Creek crosses the north half of the city toward the White River, with parks in the lowlands along it. The town point plans for −19°F, typical winter −5°F, 1°F warmer than downtown at bloom, over a −19°F floor. Eagle Trace, 70 feet above its floor, reads 3°F warmer at bloom. South toward Franklin it's colder: New Whiteland and Whiteland plan for −20°F and read 2°F and 3°F colder, while Bargersville, to the southwest, plans for −18°F.

Beech Grove plans for −17°F, typical winter −3°F, 1°F warmer at bloom. Southport reads 3°F colder, Homecroft and University Heights 2°F colder, while Lindenwood, on a slope 90 feet up, plans for −17°F and reads 3°F warmer. In the southwest corner Waverly, on a river bottom, plans for −20°F and reads 3°F to 4°F colder, while the hills around it read warm: Bluffs 5°F, Sally Doty Hill 7°F and Travis Hill, 130 feet up, 8°F to 9°F warmer than downtown. Use those slopes for Redstar (−25°F) and Contender peaches, Tomcot apricot (−30°F) and Skeena sweet cherry (−30°F).

Speedway, Plainfield, Brownsburg and Mooresville on the west side

Speedway plans for −17°F, typical winter −4°F, even with downtown at bloom. The airport, 7 miles southwest of downtown, plans for −17°F. In Hendricks County, Plainfield has White Lick Creek on its west side and Clark's Creek on its east, and its town point sits right on the floor: −19°F, typical winter −6°F, 2°F colder at bloom. Brownsburg plans for −19°F and reads about even, and Avon reads about even with a typical winter of −5°F.

Mooresville's center sits between White Lick Creek and its East Fork, and here the land finally has some relief. The town point, on a toe slope 50 feet up, plans for −19°F and reads 4°F warmer than downtown at bloom; within 3 miles the floor runs −19°F and the slopes 100 to 700 feet up −16°F. Keller Hill, 220 feet above its floor, plans for −16°F and reads 10°F warmer at bloom, while Lake Hart, on a draw below, reads 5°F colder. Anderson Orchard in Mooresville has grown apples since 1969, along with peaches, pears, plums, red raspberries and nuts, on 150 acres. These hills hold most of the warmest spring readings of any named places on the map: put Blushingstar (−30°F) and Siberian C (−35°F) peaches, apricots and sweet cherries high on the slopes but off the windswept crest, and apples and pears lower, not down on the creek.

Spring frost and bloom around Indianapolis

Henry Ward Beecher, writing from Indianapolis in January 1843, named the changeable spring weather as the main thing holding fruit growing back here. It still is. In April 2007 a warm late March pushed fruit buds about two weeks ahead, freezing started April 4, and Indiana's peaches were nearly wiped out. In 2012 warm mid-March days, then a freeze, gave Indiana its worst apple crop in about 70 years. In 2020 late April and early May freezes, including May 9, hit about 70 percent of Indiana's apple crop.

The 1991 to 2020 frost dates in NOAA station records move with the ground:

• Indianapolis airport station, 7 miles southwest of downtown: last 32°F April 16 (May 10 in a late year, 1 in 10), last 28°F April 4, first fall 32°F October 22, 185 frost free days.
• Eagle Creek airport station: April 10, 194 days, the longest here; we haven't found a published explanation for why.
• Carmel 3 E station, at 752 feet, about 75 feet below the Carmel town point: April 24, 176 days.
• Martinsville 2 SW station, at 592 feet the lowest near the map, in the White River valley: April 24, 170 days, May 14 in a late year.

Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F, and the ground can run 4°F to 8°F below a thermometer 5 feet up. You don't need every flower, though. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set (the University of Minnesota's number), sweet cherries can lose half and still crop, and haskap flowers take 19°F wide open. My rule of thumb: unless the fruit is clustered (cherries, grapes), most fruit can lose half its blossoms with little effect, and the frost just does your thinning.

Site is "the single most important method of frost protection," as the FAO's frost manual puts it. Plant on the slope, off the bottom and off any windswept crest, with apricots, peaches and sweet cherries highest. Bob Purvis's rule from our grower manual: an east-facing slope is ideal, and a north slope holds early bloomers like apricots and plums back. A hedge or tree line across a slope backs cold air up into the trees above it, so gap it at the low end. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard buys about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F, by Alabama Extension's numbers.

What the weather records say

Whitestown has 119 years on file and the airport 83, and both hit their coldest, −27°F, on January 19, 1994, the morning New Whiteland read −36°F and Martinsville −35°F. Greenfield, just east of the map, holds −29°F from January 20, 1985, and the old city station's coldest was −19°F on January 12, 1918. Other big outbreaks came in 1936, 1951, 1963, 1972, 1977, 1984 and December 1989. Since then the stations on the map have stayed milder; January 7, 2014 brought −20°F at Whitestown and −15°F at the airport. Our planning lows at the stations sit 1°F to 5°F colder than anything recorded there since 1995, and well above the −27°F the airport and Whitestown hit in 1994.

Wikipedia puts Indianapolis on the line between USDA zones 6a and 6b; our MFTC zone downtown is 5a. NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low, which is why our zones read about a full zone colder than USDA's.

What you can grow here

Most of our list clears winter anywhere on this map, so choose by site and bloom. The bands follow the planning low.

The warm core, −17°F or warmer

Downtown and the old neighborhoods, Lawrence, Castleton, Nora, Beech Grove, Speedway, the centers of Carmel and Fishers, and the higher ground above the White River. Everything but the fig fits, the −20°F group included, and the −25°F group has room: Stella, Hardired nectarine, SnowCzar almond, Montana Trial Persimmon, Rhodes Heartnut. Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) is worth a try only where the number reads −15°F, like the Lawrence town point, tight against a south or west wall.

Most of the suburbs and the river floors, −18°F to −20°F

Noblesville, Westfield, Greenwood, Plainfield, Brownsburg, Mooresville, Cicero, most of Geist, Broad Ripple and Rocky Ripple. The −20°F group fits where the number reads −20°F or warmer, with nothing to spare; everything at −25°F or colder has room. On high ground: the peaches and apricots above, Gold (−35°F) sweet cherry, Superior plum (Toka, −45°F, is a good pollenizer for Superior), Italian plum (−35°F), and Harrow Sweet (−30°F) and Seckel (−35°F) pears. Apples like Liberty (−35°F) can go lower on the slope. Montmorency tart cherry (−35°F), Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F) and Trader mulberry (−40°F), the hardiest mulberry we know of, clear with room; keep cherries off the bottom, since frost costs clustered fruit more.

The cold edge, colder than −20°F

Zionsville, Whitestown, Lebanon, Ulen, Eagletown, Fall Creek Highland and the creek bottoms between Carmel and Zionsville. Everything rated −25°F or colder fits, and the −20°F group is only worth a try. Where spring reads cold too, plant what shrugs off a frosty bloom night: Haralson (−45°F) and Zestar! (−40°F) apples, Kerr (−50°F) and Trailman (−55°F) applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these), Red Lake currant (−40°F), Hinnomaki Red gooseberry (−40°F) and the bush fruit above.

Roots, soil and the local problems

Roots are the weak link and snow protects them: at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no damage. Root injury comes mainly in snowless winters with dry soil, so mulch. Brookston and Crosby soils on the till flats are heavy and poorly drained, and Miami and Crosby slopes hold a seasonal water table 0.5 to 2 feet down; the Fox and Ockley soils on the outwash terraces along the White River and Eagle Creek drain well. Dig a hole 2 feet deep, fill it, let it drain, fill it again: under 10 hours is well drained. Apple scab is the main disease Purdue's home apple advice is built around, fire blight can follow freeze injury (Purdue's Janna Beckerman), and Beecher was complaining about plum curculio in 1843. Most apples need a pollenizer blooming at the same time nearby; our pollination maps show what blooms together.

Fruit history here

The first Indiana Horticultural Society met on August 22, 1840, in the new Statehouse in Indianapolis, with fruit brought in by saddlebag, and Joshua Lindley showed the first Indiana-grown Bartlett pear that year (we sell Bartlett, −35°F). Henry Ward Beecher, an Indianapolis pastor from 1837 to 1847, drove the society and edited its paper. In 1843 he counted eighteen nurseries in Indiana and said nearly every farm had an orchard, and pear and plum street trees were proposed for Indianapolis. Adrian Orchards in Indianapolis dates to 1925.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Indianapolis?

Downtown Indianapolis plans for −16°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −3°F; across the map it runs from −15°F in Lawrence to −22°F at Whitestown. Wikipedia puts the city on the line between USDA zones 6a and 6b. USDA's zone is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Indianapolis?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at April 16 at the Indianapolis airport station, May 10 in a late year (1 in 10). The Eagle Creek airport station's median is April 10, and the Carmel 3 E and Martinsville stations, on lower ground, run to April 24. Purdue's Peter Hirst puts Indiana's average last frost in early May.

Can you grow peaches in Indianapolis?

Yes. Every peach we sell is rated −25°F or colder, and the coldest named place on the map plans for −22°F, so winter isn't the problem. Bloom is: the April 2007 freeze nearly wiped out Indiana's peaches. Plant them on your highest ground, like the hills around Mooresville or the higher ground above the White River.

Where are the frost pockets around Indianapolis?

The river and creek bottoms. On a still bloom night Woods at Shelborne on Carmel's west side and Trails End in Fishers read 6°F colder than downtown, Luxhaven 5°F colder, and Rocky Ripple and Forest Hills 4°F colder. The ground above runs warm: North Crows Nest and Indian Lake at Geist read 6°F warmer, Keller Hill near Mooresville 10°F warmer.

Why is Zionsville colder than Indianapolis?

Zionsville plans for −21°F and downtown −16°F. The Whitestown station, on the flat till plain past Zionsville, runs a median 3°F to 5°F colder on the coldest night than the city stations, since flat open ground far from the city's heat makes its own cold on a clear night, and Zionsville's town point sits on the valley floor.

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.