Fruit Trees for Kalamazoo, Portage, Battle Creek and Plainwell, Michigan

In the cold snap around January 4, 1981, NOAA's station at the Kellogg Biological Station on Gull Lake read −20°F, while the old State Hospital station in Kalamazoo, 13 miles away, read −7°F. That 13°F spread is the place to start on fruit trees for Kalamazoo, Portage, Battle Creek and Plainwell. This map covers nearly all of Kalamazoo County in Southwest Michigan, from Schoolcraft and Vicksburg north to Plainwell and Otsego and east along the Kalamazoo River to Battle Creek and Springfield, plus the Gull Lake country and Mattawan just over the Van Buren line.

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, tuned to the ground right around you. It's a safe number to plan around, not the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, and the typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's map is built on. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Kalamazoo, our reference town, on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Kalamazoo plans for −21°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −7°F, and half of all the growing ground plans between −23°F and −21°F. The warm end is zone 5a, −20°F, at Portage, Oshtemo and Kalamazoo's Douglas, Eastwood and South Westnedge neighborhoods. The cold end is the Kalamazoo River floor west of downtown Battle Creek, where Urbandale and Level Park plan for −25°F. Nearly everything we sell has come through −25°F or colder, so most of the list clears the winter almost anywhere here. Spend your attention on the spring layer, which swings 17°F between the warmest and coldest named places we checked.

Why the map looks the way it does

Southwest Michigan is moraine ridges with outwash plains between them, and the Kalamazoo Moraine reaches right into Kalamazoo. The outwash is glacial sand and gravel, and that's where settlers found their prairies: Prairie Ronde around Schoolcraft, Gull Prairie around Richland, the prairie Climax was named for, and the Goguac prairie at Battle Creek. Ice blocks buried in the outwash melted out later and left pits, now kettle lakes like Gull Lake, swamps and black-soil hollows. The Kalamazoo River cuts through it all, west from Ceresco through Battle Creek, Augusta, Galesburg and Comstock to Kalamazoo, then north past Parchment to Plainwell and Otsego.

That valley is the cold sink. On a clear, still night cold air slides off the prairies and settles on the river floor, which makes plenty of its own as it radiates to the sky. The river towns sit 709 to 840 feet up and the prairies 100 to 180 feet higher. Ceresco, Battle Creek and Augusta plan for −24°F, and Galesburg, Comstock, Plainwell and Otsego for −23°F, while up on the outwash Portage and Schoolcraft plan for −20°F and Climax and Richland for −21°F. The same drainage hits harder at bloom: Augusta, Galesburg and Plainwell read 3°F colder than downtown Kalamazoo, and Comstock 4°F colder.

Battle Creek's center sits right on the floor where the Battle Creek River comes into the Kalamazoo, and it plans for −24°F, 3°F colder than downtown Kalamazoo. Over each station's full NOAA record, the Battle Creek airport station's average yearly low is −8°F and the Battle Creek 5NW station's, out in the country northwest of the city, −10°F, against −6°F at the Kalamazoo airport and −7°F at the old State Hospital. Downtown Kalamazoo is on the floor too, at 785 feet, but it plans about 1°F warmer than the floor ground around it, which fits town heat on still nights. The rest comes from those mild Kalamazoo station records, and we haven't found a published explanation for them. The State Hospital station did sit at 950 feet, about 165 feet above downtown.

The lakes do less than you'd hope. Gull Lake is a 2,030-acre kettle about 110 feet deep, and in the Kellogg Biological Station's volunteer ice records for 2019 to 2022 it didn't freeze over until January 16 to 29, weeks after shallow Fair Lake. But ten of the twelve big cold outbreaks in NOAA's records here came after mid-January, about when Gull Lake ices over, and the Gull Lake station ran a median 3°F colder than the State Hospital over 51 years. Its median first fall 32°F, October 8, comes earlier than the Kalamazoo airport's October 16. Along Gull Lake, slope helps more than water.

Kalamazoo is in the Lake Michigan snow belt, about 55 inches a year by the USGS count. Snow chills the air above it on a still night but keeps roots warm. The uplands are mostly deep, well-drained loams and sandy loams on outwash. The old celery lands are black muck over clay on the valley floor north of downtown, east to Comstock and south along Portage Creek, and low muck ground like that is frost prone. Neighborhoods there read colder at bloom: Northside 2°F colder than downtown, Lawndale 3°F and Comstock 4°F. A closed hollow fills with cold air up to its lowest notch before any spills out, so treat any pit on your ground as a frost pocket.

Downtown Kalamazoo, the Northside and the river flats

The floor neighborhoods around downtown plan for −21°F to −23°F. Stuart, the 1854 suburb just northwest of downtown, and Vine, just south, plan for −21°F and read 2°F colder than downtown at bloom. Northside plans for −21°F and Northwood and Edison −22°F, all 2°F colder. Southside, right on the floor at 766 feet, plans for −21°F and reads 3°F colder. The Eastside is rolling high ground over downtown, but the point we checked sits 10 feet above the floor (−21°F, 1°F colder), so type in your own address. Parchment, across the river, plans for −22°F and reads 2°F colder. East into Comstock Township the floor gets colder: Lawndale plans for −23°F and reads 3°F colder, and Comstock −23°F and 4°F colder.

On these flats everything we sell that has come through −25°F or colder clears the winter, so pick for bloom. Apples carry the load: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Liberty (−35°F), Northern Spy (−30°F) and Golden Russet (−40°F). Haskap, currants and gooseberries all came through the hard bloom frosts of spring 2026 well for us in Montana. A peach or apricot here needs the highest corner of the lot and frost cloth on hand.

West Main Hill, Westnedge Hill, Milwood and the hills

The west and south sides climb out of the valley into low hills, the best fruit ground in the city. West Main Hill, where Henderson Castle overlooks downtown, sits 100 feet above its floor on a 7 percent slope, plans for −20°F and reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom, the best spring reading of any Kalamazoo neighborhood we checked. That's 10°F warmer than Southside, a mile and a half away. Douglas, just north, is 110 feet up, zone 5a at −20°F, and reads 6°F warmer. Cold drains off these hillsides on its way to the river. South Westnedge (zone 5a, −20°F) reads 3°F warmer, Oakland/Winchell, around Asylum Lake and Woods Lake, 2°F warmer, and Hill N' Brook, on a 6 percent toe slope, 3°F warmer. Westnedge Hill is 80 feet up but lies along a draw that carries cold downhill, and it reads even with downtown. Westwood and Arcadia, 80 to 120 feet up on flatter ground, read even to 1°F warmer; flat high ground holds more of its own cold than a slope. Knollwood, by Western Michigan University, and Parkview Hills, in a bottom, read 1°F to 2°F colder.

On the southeast side, Milwood, which takes in the airport, sits 90 feet above its floor, plans for −20°F and reads 4°F warmer. Across the river, Eastwood (zone 5a) reads 1°F warmer and Burke Acres 2°F warmer. The slopes with plus readings are where the early bloomers belong: apricots like Harlayne and Tomcot (−30°F), peaches like Contender and Blushingstar (−30°F), and sweet cherries like Lapins (−35°F) and Stella (−25°F).

Portage, Texas Township, Vicksburg and Schoolcraft

Portage, on the flats south of the city, plans for −20°F, zone 5a, with a typical winter of −6°F, and reads even with downtown Kalamazoo at bloom. Its cold strip is Portage Creek, which runs north through town past the Celery Flats, where Dutch growers worked muck plots before 1900; the coldest tenth of the ground within 3 miles plans for −23°F. Ramona Park, in a bottom 2 miles east of central Portage, reads 3°F colder than downtown. Texas Corners, about 5 miles west, plans for −22°F but reads 4°F colder, a spring frost pocket. Vicksburg, on the Sunset Lake millpond up Portage Creek, plans for −21°F and reads 2°F colder.

Schoolcraft sits on Prairie Ronde, at about 14,000 acres the biggest of the county's eight prairies. It plans for −20°F but reads 2°F colder at bloom, because dead-flat prairie gives the cold nowhere to go. Collins Corner, on ground with no slope at all, plans for −20°F (zone 5a) and reads 3°F colder, and Cooks Mill, 5 miles south of Galesburg, has the coldest spring reading of any named place we checked: 6°F colder than downtown. Out here, plant apples on the flat and save any rise for the stone fruit.

Richland, Gull Lake, Augusta and Galesburg

Richland sits in the middle of Gull Prairie at 928 feet, plans for −21°F with a typical winter of −7°F, and reads 1°F colder than downtown at bloom. The ground at the Gull Lake and South Gull Lake hamlets, 50 to 60 feet above its floor on 4 to 7 percent slopes, plans for −21°F and reads 2°F to 3°F warmer, the best place in this corner for a sweet cherry or apricot. Hickory Corners, by the biological station, reads 1°F colder, and Woodlawn Beach, in a bottom 4 miles north of the Gull Lake hamlet, plans for −24°F and reads 3°F colder. Farther north, Prairieville, 70 feet above its floor, reads 1°F warmer and Delton 2°F colder.

South off the prairie it's a drop of more than 100 feet to the river. Augusta, with the oak barrens of Fort Custer just south, plans for −24°F with a typical winter of −10°F, and Galesburg −23°F. Both read 3°F colder than downtown, and both have bench ground near −21°F, so the slope up out of the village is the place for stone fruit and pears. Climax, at 967 feet, plans for −21°F, but it's nearly flat and reads 2°F colder.

Battle Creek, Springfield and the Battle Creek River

Downtown Battle Creek, the Cereal City, sits at the junction of the two rivers and plans for −24°F with a typical winter of −10°F; within 3 miles the floor's median is −24°F and the benches' −21°F. The coldest ground is the Kalamazoo River floor toward Augusta. Urbandale, 4 miles west and right on the floor at 816 feet, plans for −25°F with a typical winter of −12°F, and Level Park and Oak Park plan for −25°F as well. Bedford, north of the city, plans for −24°F, and so do Ceresco, upstream on the Kalamazoo, and Bellevue, up the slow Battle Creek River, which falls only about 1.25 feet per mile.

Lakeview, 2 miles southwest of downtown and 90 feet above its floor, plans for −20°F, and Springfield Place, on a bench 110 feet up, −21°F. Springfield sits 70 feet above its floor, plans for −22°F and reads 2°F warmer than downtown Kalamazoo. On the east side Brownlee Park reads 2°F warmer and Greenfield Park, on a 10 percent slope, 3°F warmer. South of town Stanley Corners and West Leroy reach zone 5a at −20°F, though flat West Leroy reads 3°F colder at bloom. Dixon Hall, a 1,063-foot hill 2 miles east of Burlington, has the best spring reading of any named place we checked, 11°F warmer than downtown Kalamazoo. Twelve miles north of downtown Battle Creek, Lacey, at 994 feet, is zone 5a at −20°F and reads 4°F warmer. In Battle Creek, get off the floor: keep the river flats for apples, haskap and bush fruit, and put stone fruit and pears on Lakeview, Springfield and the slopes.

Plainwell, Otsego, Alamo and the lower river

Below Kalamazoo the river turns north and the floor drops to its lowest. Plainwell, the Island City, at 725 feet, and Otsego, at 714 feet, both sit in the river bottom and plan for −23°F with typical winters of −9°F. Plainwell reads 3°F colder than downtown Kalamazoo at bloom, Otsego 1°F colder. Within 3 miles of either town the benches run about −21°F and the coldest tenth −24°F, so the valley side beats the riverside by 2°F in winter and more in spring. The 35 miles of river from Kalamazoo to the Allegan Dam is a PCB Superfund site, worth knowing before you plant food in the floodplain.

Cooper, on a bench 120 feet above its floor north of Kalamazoo, reads 2°F warmer than downtown, while Hooper, on a floor 6 miles northeast of Plainwell, plans for −24°F and reads 3°F colder. Alamo plans for −22°F and reads 3°F colder, but its bench ground runs −20°F. Mattawan, on a hillside 70 feet above its floor, plans for −21°F and reads 4°F warmer, and Lawton −22°F and 2°F colder. West toward South Haven, the Southwest Michigan fruit belt map covers you; north of this map, see Grand Rapids, Holland and the Fruit Ridge.

Spring frost and bloom from Kalamazoo to Battle Creek

The spring layer runs from 11°F warmer than downtown Kalamazoo on Dixon Hall to 6°F colder at Cooks Mill. The warm readings are drained slopes (West Main Hill 7°F warmer, Douglas 6°F, Mattawan, Milwood and Lacey 4°F). The cold readings are bottoms and flats, with Cooks Mill, Texas Corners, Comstock and Gardners Corners 4°F to 6°F colder. Lake Michigan is 35 to 50 miles west, too far to hold bloom back the way it does in the fruit belt; a 1936 Michigan survey put the state's best fruit sites within 3 or 4 miles of the lake.

At the Kalamazoo airport station, at 864 feet in Milwood about 80 feet above downtown, NOAA's 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F is April 30 and the last 28°F April 19, with the last 32°F as late as May 13 in a late year (1 in 10). The first fall 32°F comes October 16, for a 170-day frost-free season. The Battle Creek 5NW station, northwest of Battle Creek, is a colder site, with an average yearly low over its full record of −10°F to the Battle Creek airport station's −8°F. Its last 32°F comes May 13 (June 1 in a late year), its last 28°F April 27 and its first fall 32°F October 4, for 145 frost-free days. We don't have frost dates for the Battle Creek airport station, so don't read 5NW's as downtown Battle Creek's own. The Gull Lake Biological Station gets its last 32°F on May 1 (May 20 in a late year) and 155 frost-free days. Floors and frost pockets frost later in spring than the station sites near them.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying near 28°F (Michigan State's fruit people), so the last 28°F is the date to watch. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop (University of Minnesota), and most fruit can lose half its blossoms or more with little effect; cherries and grapes forgive less. We haven't found published bloom dates here, but on April 20, 2018, after a cold spring, the apples at Gull Meadow Farms in Richland hadn't bloomed and were about three weeks behind.

Site is the main defense; the FAO's frost protection manual calls it the single most important method there is. Put apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and pears highest, apples and haskap lower (haskap flowers take 19°F wide open), and bush fruit at the bottom. A hedge, fence or tree line across a slope backs cold air up into the trees above it, so open a gap at the low end. Through bloom keep the grass under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard buys about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F. Site and drainage do little in a windy freeze, when higher ground runs colder.

What the weather records say

The coldest mornings in NOAA's station records here are old ones. On February 12, 1899, Hastings, just north of the map, read −31°F and the Battle Creek airport station −24°F, still the coldest in a record that goes back to 1895. On February 10, 1912, Allegan 5NE read −29°F and the Kalamazoo State Hospital station −22°F. The Gull Lake station's record is −21°F on January 30, 1951, and the Kalamazoo airport station, with 28 years on file, bottomed out at −18°F on January 31, 2019.

In the January 23, 1948 cold snap Hastings read −24°F and Gull Lake −20°F while the State Hospital read −12°F. Recent outbreaks ran closer together: around January 31, 2019, Battle Creek 5NW and the Kalamazoo airport both read −18°F and Hastings −16°F. Wind flattens the pattern; calm, clear mornings sort it by drainage. Timing matters as much as depth. A Michigan study found tart cherry buds that died at about −12°F in November, in orchards that survived about −20°F in January.

USDA's 2023 zone map is built on the average winter's coldest night, not the bad one. Downtown Kalamazoo's typical winter is −7°F and its planning low −21°F, which is why our MFTC zone reads more than a full zone colder than USDA's.

What you can grow here

Winter clears nearly all of our list here, so pick by bloom night and ground. Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior; for pairings across the list, see our pollination maps.

Drained slopes that read warmer than downtown at bloom (−20°F to −22°F)

West Main Hill, Douglas, Milwood, South Westnedge and Hill N' Brook in Kalamazoo, the Gull Lake hamlets, Mattawan, Springfield, Brownlee Park, Lacey and Dixon Hall. This is ground for the early bloomers: apricots Harlayne, Tomcot, Goldrich (−30°F) and Westcot (−45°F); peaches Contender, Blushingstar, Veteran (−30°F) and Redstar (−25°F); Hardired nectarine (−25°F); sweet cherries Lapins, Rainier (−30°F) and Stella; plums Superior (−35°F) and Toka (−45°F); pears Bartlett, Seckel (−35°F) and D'Anjou (−30°F); and SnowCzar almond (−25°F). Tom McCamant grows Contender at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, and it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F; Blushingstar came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage. In the zone 5a spots, Bing, Santa Rosa and Flavortop (−20°F) clear too; elsewhere on these slopes they're worth a try.

Flat ground and town lots within 2°F of downtown at bloom (−20°F to −24°F)

Downtown Kalamazoo, Stuart, Vine, Northside, Westwood, Portage, Oshtemo, Schoolcraft, Vicksburg, Richland, Lakeview, downtown Battle Creek and Otsego. Apples first: Honeycrisp, Liberty, Evercrisp (−30°F), Northern Spy, Cox Orange Pippin (−35°F) and Glockenapfel (−25°F). Add Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F). Pears, plums and the other stone fruit want the highest corner you've got; where that corner reads even with downtown or better, Stanley (−30°F) and Italian (−35°F) plums are good picks.

River bottoms and frost pockets, 3°F to 6°F colder than downtown at bloom (−21°F to −25°F)

Urbandale, Augusta, Galesburg, Comstock, Lawndale, Southside, Plainwell, Alamo, Woodlawn Beach, Texas Corners and Cooks Mill. Keep pears and stone fruit off this ground. Plant Haralson (−45°F), Wolf River (−50°F), Zestar!® (−40°F) and Kerr applecrab (−50°F), then the bush fruit: haskap (−50°F), Red Lake currant (−40°F), which fruited well for us after its flower buds saw about 22°F, Hinnomaki Red gooseberry (−40°F), Boyne raspberry (−50°F) and aronia (−50°F).

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 rootstock damage. Cornell's fruit people found root damage comes mainly in snowless winters with dry soil, so on the sandy outwash mulch the root zone and keep the soil moist into fall. Test drainage before planting (dig 2 feet, fill it, let it drain, refill it: under 10 hours is well drained); the old muck over clay often fails. Soils at the Kellogg Biological Station run acid, pH 5.2 to 6.0. A drip line helps in dry spells, but taper the water from mid-August, as we do in zone 4 and colder, so the trees harden off before the first fall freeze.

Fruit history here

Kalamazoo's farm fame is celery, which is where Celery City comes from. George Taylor planted celery in the 1850s, and Dutch immigrants drained the muck north of the city, east to Comstock and south into Portage, working horses in wide wooden shoes; more than 1,000 acres were still in celery in 1939. Paper mill wells lowered the water table, blight came in the 1930s, and from about 1960 the growers turned to flowers, until Comstock Township was known as the Bedding Plant Capital of the World. The commercial fruit belt grew up to the west in Van Buren and Berrien counties. Gull Meadow Farms in Richland started in 1949 with strawberries and wheat and offered its first u-pick apples in 1985.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Kalamazoo?

Downtown Kalamazoo plans for −21°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −7°F. Portage, Oshtemo and the Douglas, Eastwood and South Westnedge neighborhoods reach zone 5a at −20°F, and the river floor west of downtown Battle Creek runs to −25°F. USDA's map is built on the average winter's coldest night, so it reads warmer than ours; ours is built on the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Kalamazoo?

At the Kalamazoo airport station, NOAA's 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F is April 30 and the last 28°F is April 19; in a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F comes May 13. The frost-free season there is 170 days. Low ground in the river valley and the old muck flats frosts later in spring than the airport.

When is the last frost in Battle Creek?

We don't have 1991 to 2020 frost dates for the Battle Creek airport station. The Battle Creek 5NW station, northwest of the city, gets its median last 32°F on May 13 and its last 28°F on April 27, with June 1 in a late year and 145 frost-free days. It runs colder than the airport station (average yearly lows of −10°F and −8°F over their full records), so treat its dates as the cautious side for town lots.

Can you grow peaches in Kalamazoo?

Yes. The peaches we sell have come through −25°F to −35°F, at or below the planning low everywhere we checked on this map. The catch is bloom, so put them on drained slopes that read warm on a spring night, like West Main Hill, Douglas or Milwood, not on the river flats or Southside.

When does Gull Lake freeze?

In the Kellogg Biological Station's volunteer ice records for the winters of 2019 to 2022, Gull Lake froze over between January 16 and January 29 and opened between March 7 and March 22. It's about 110 feet deep, so in the two winters both were logged it froze 2 to 4 weeks after shallow Fair Lake nearby.

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.