Fruit Trees for Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton and the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

On one frost night at Scholl Orchards, up at Kempton just past this map's west edge, the top of the hill read 30°F and the bottom 26°F, and the bottom lost its whole crop. That night is most of what you need to know about fruit trees for Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton and the Lehigh Valley. Winter is mild by our standards. Downtown Allentown plans for −7°F, and everything we sell except the Chicago Hardy Fig has come through colder than the coldest named place on this map. The crop comes down to the microclimate your tree sits in on a still April night.

The map runs from Kutztown and the East Penn Valley to the Delaware at Easton and Phillipsburg, and from Quakertown and Upper Bucks north to Blue Mountain, with Palmerton and Lehighton beyond Lehigh Gap. 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 bad winter night we'd plan a fruit tree around. It's the number our cold hardiness calculator gives, adjusted a little for the lay of the ground at your spot, and it leans cold on purpose. It isn't a record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. The typical winter is an average year's coldest night, closer to how USDA builds its zones, so it always reads warmer. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder your spot runs than downtown Allentown on a calm, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Allentown plans for −7°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter of 3°F. The middle of the valley's growing ground plans for −10°F, and half of it sits between −11°F and −9°F. The warm end is the hilltops around Easton, Morgan Hill and Marble Mountain, at −5°F, zone 6b. The cold end is Palmerton, behind Blue Mountain, at −15°F, zone 5b. The spring layer swings wider: Lehigh Mountain above Allentown reads 9°F warmer than downtown on a bloom night, and the creek bottoms at Durham Furnace on the Delaware and at Weisenberg out west read 14°F colder.

Why the map looks the way it does

The Lehigh Valley is a piece of the Great Appalachian Valley, a limestone floor between two ridges. Blue Mountain, the Kittatinny Ridge, walls the north side with a crest mostly 1,400 to 1,700 feet high, roughly 1,000 to 1,300 feet above the Lehigh at Allentown. South Mountain, the Pennsylvania end of the Reading Prong's old gneiss hills, runs 500 to 1,100 feet along the south side, and south of Bethlehem it goes by Lehigh Mountain. The Lehigh cuts through Blue Mountain at Lehigh Gap, runs south to Allentown, bends northeast past Bethlehem and meets the Delaware at the Forks in Easton at 160 feet.

On a clear, calm night the valley makes most of its own cold. The ground radiates heat to the sky, the air touching it chills and gets heavy, and air sliding off the ridges and down the side valleys adds to it: Jordan Creek from a spring below Bake Oven Knob, the Monocacy off the Slate Belt near Chapman, the Little Lehigh and Saucon Creek from the southwest and south. The cold settles on the floors. River-level ground along the Lehigh plans for −12°F to −13°F (Laurys Station, Biery's Port in Catasauqua, Historic South Bethlehem), and around nearly every town on the map the benches 100 to 700 feet up plan 2°F to 4°F warmer than the floor within 3 miles.

We haven't found a published study that maps the valley's cold holes, but NOAA's own stations show the pattern. The Bucksville station south of Riegelsville, at 387 feet, is the coldest on the map, with its own 30-year number at −18°F. The Springtown station, 6 miles away and up at 860 feet, runs a median 4°F warmer on the year's coldest night, and in the worst cold snaps the gap blows wide open: −19°F against −4°F in the February 1996 cold snap, −19°F against −2°F in January 2011, and −20°F against −2°F in February 2015. That's the thermal belt, a warmer layer of air sitting over the cold that pools on the low ground.

Towns hold heat on still nights, from pavement, brick and less open sky. The old Allentown Gas Company station sat at 249 feet, near the city's lowest ground, and never read colder than −12°F in 40 years. The old Lehigh University station in Bethlehem ran a median 4°F warmer than the airport. The mildest station on the map now is the one on the Phillipsburg-Easton bridge, with an average yearly low of 3°F. In the January 2025 cold snap it read −2°F, while the Belvidere Bridge station, also on the Delaware just past the map's northeast corner, read −17°F. Same river, 15°F apart, so the river isn't what keeps the Forks mild. Two downtowns facing each other across it fits the numbers better.

Flat floors pool the hardest, since cold that's made in place has nowhere to go. Quakertown sits on a 1 percent slope, and the old Quakertown station ran a median 3°F colder than the airport and 7°F colder than old Lehigh University. The broad limestone floor of the East Penn Valley around Kutztown does the same thing. Cold also stacks up above a narrows, which is why Palmerton, just upstream of Lehigh Gap, gets the coldest number of any town on the map. There's no big water to help. A river floor is still a floor, and Lake Nockamixon sometimes freezes hard enough for skating and ice fishing; a frozen lake gives no shelter. Wind or cloud flattens all of this. The spring layer is the same drainage drawn at full strength, because a calm, clear night at bloom is the one that costs you the crop.

Allentown: Center City, the West End and the South Side

Allentown climbs from 255 feet at the Lehigh to 440 feet, and its core sits up on the rise above the spot where Jordan Creek and the Little Lehigh join and run into the river. Downtown plans for −7°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter of 3°F; within 3 miles the floor plans for −10°F and the benches −7°F. The warmest blocks are the older, closely built neighborhoods west of downtown, 110 feet above the floor, where height and town heat work together. West Park and Franklin Park plan for −6°F with a typical winter of 5°F, and Old Allentown and the Eighth Ward plan for −7°F.

Go down and it changes fast. The Waterfront, right on the river floor, plans for −11°F and reads 8°F colder than downtown at bloom. The West End, on flatter ground west of 15th Street, plans for −9°F and reads 6°F colder. Trexler Park, down at the floor, reads 10°F colder, and Park Ridge, in a creek bottom on the southwest side, 12°F colder. The South Side across the Little Lehigh plans for −8°F but reads 8°F colder. Go up and it flips. Dutch Hill, 300 feet above the floor, reads 8°F warmer than downtown, and Lehigh Mountain, 570 feet up, plans for −6°F and reads 9°F warmer. The fig clears nearly all of the city and is worth a try against a south wall down on the floor. Apricots, peaches and sweet cherries belong in the West Park yards or up the slopes; the bottoms are for apples, currants and haskap.

Bethlehem, Fountain Hill and the Saucon Valley

Bethlehem plans colder than Allentown because it sits lower. The city center hugs the Lehigh where the Monocacy comes in, only 30 feet above its floor at 280 feet, and plans for −12°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of −1°F; within 3 miles the floor plans for −11°F and the benches −8°F. Historic South Bethlehem, on the river floor, plans for −12°F and reads 8°F colder than downtown Allentown at bloom. The Moravian blocks of Historic Bethlehem, on the hillside above the Monocacy, plan for −11°F but read 3°F warmer, because cold drains off a slope. The map reads the old Lehigh University station's spot at −6°F, so there's milder ground in town than the center number suggests.

South Mountain is the good ground. Sayre Park, 340 feet up its side, plans for −8°F and reads 5°F warmer than downtown Allentown, and Star Village, 420 feet up, reads 8°F warmer. University Heights, about a quarter mile away and 370 feet up but down in a draw, reads 1°F colder, which is what a draw does. Fountain Hill, also in a draw, plans for −9°F and reads 6°F colder. Over the mountain, the Saucon Valley floor is one of the frostier stretches on the map. Hellertown, on Saucon Creek at the foot of Lehigh Mountain, plans for −12°F and reads 8°F colder, and the Lower Saucon floor 10°F colder. In April 2026 Bechdolt's Orchard near Hellertown projected losing about 90 percent of its crops and every apricot. Saucon Hill, 300 feet up, reads 8°F warmer, so in the Saucon Valley the slopes are where apricots and peaches go.

Easton, Phillipsburg and the Delaware

Downtown Easton sits at the Forks, low ground at 207 feet ringed by hills on the north, west and south. It plans for −7°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter of 4°F, mild for a floor; within 3 miles the floor plans for −9°F and the benches −6°F. Bloom is the catch. The spring layer reads downtown 7°F colder than downtown Allentown, though the Phillipsburg-Easton bridge station between the two downtowns has a median last 32°F frost of April 15, nine days ahead of the airport. Treat the floor as frost-prone and plant on the hills. College Hill, 110 feet up around Lafayette College, plans for −7°F and reads even with downtown Allentown. South Easton, across the Lehigh and 130 feet up, plans for −6°F, and Wilson, 150 feet up, plans for −7°F and reads 2°F warmer.

Across the river, Phillipsburg sits on a bench 150 feet above the floor, plans for −7°F and reads 2°F warmer than downtown Allentown, and Lopatcong and Alpha in Warren County, New Jersey, plan for −7°F. Marble Mountain on that side and Morgan Hill south of Easton are the warmest named places on the map: −5°F, zone 6b, and 6°F to 7°F warmer at bloom. You can grow the whole list there, fig included. Downriver from Easton the Delaware's bottoms are cold at bloom. Raubsville reads 9°F colder than downtown Allentown, Carpentersville on the New Jersey bank 12°F colder and Durham Furnace 14°F colder. Riegelsville plans for −12°F.

Nazareth, Bath and the Lehigh above Allentown

North of the cities the land rises in long steps toward Blue Mountain, limestone around Nazareth and then shale and slate. Nazareth sits on its limestone rise 140 feet above the floor and plans for −8°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter of 4°F and a bloom reading even with downtown Allentown, one of the better small-town sites on the map. Bath, about 4 miles west in the bottom of its valley, plans for −10°F and reads 9°F colder. Higher toward the mountain the bloom readings turn good while winter cools a little. Cherryville, 280 feet above its floor, plans for −9°F and reads 2°F warmer, and Seemsville plans for −9°F and reads 3°F warmer. Right under the ridge it's colder again, −11°F at Danielsville and −12°F at Wind Gap.

The Lehigh's own floor above Allentown is cold. Cementon plans for −12°F and reads 8°F colder at bloom, Laurys Station plans for −13°F, and Catasauqua, on the floor, −12°F and 7°F colder. Coplay, on a bench 100 feet up, plans for −9°F and reads only 1°F colder. Gogle Farms in Coplay once lost most of its peaches (about 700 trees), its cherries and its apples after three days of highs over 80°F and then two very cold nights, and didn't open that season.

Palmerton, Lehigh Gap and the valley behind Blue Mountain

Palmerton is the coldest named place on the map. It sits at 407 feet just north of Lehigh Gap, where Aquashicola Creek meets the Lehigh, between Blue Mountain and Stony Ridge. On a still night cold air slides off both ridges into that bowl, and the way out downstream is the narrow cut at the gap. Cold pools above a narrows. Palmerton plans for −15°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of −2°F, and reads 10°F colder than downtown Allentown at bloom; Aquashicola and Bowmanstown plan for −14°F. The old Palmerton station ran a median 7°F colder than old Lehigh University, and it hit −23°F on January 21, 1994, tied with Bucksville for the coldest reading at any station on the map.

Below the gap, Walnutport plans for −14°F in its draw by the river and reads 10°F colder at bloom, while Slatington, across the river and 80 feet up, plans for −12°F and reads even with downtown Allentown. That's a 10°F swing at bloom in under a mile. Upriver, Lehighton sits on its hill 80 feet above the floor, plans for −11°F and reads 1°F colder, while Weissport, down on the floor, plans for −13°F. The Lehighton station, a mile south-southwest of town and about 125 feet below its center, hit −11°F on January 22, 2025. North of here, the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton map picks up Hazleton and the western Poconos.

Western Lehigh County and the East Penn Valley: Macungie to Kutztown

West of Allentown the valley opens into wide, flat limestone farm country, the upper Little Lehigh around Macungie and, past the county line, the East Penn Valley around Kutztown. Ground this flat makes its own cold and keeps it. Kutztown, 10 feet above its floor, plans for −12°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of 0°F, and reads 5°F colder than downtown Allentown at bloom; Maxatawny plans for −13°F. The Rodale Research Center station near Kutztown has a median last 32°F frost of April 30 and a 164-day frost-free season, 11 days shorter than the airport's. Trexlertown, right on the floor, plans for −12°F and reads 8°F colder, and Breinigsville, Spring Creek and Lyons read 9°F to 10°F colder. Height helps. Longswamp's hillside, 80 feet up, reads 2°F colder, and Schnecksville, 190 feet above its floor near the Trexler Nature Preserve, plans for −10°F and reads 1°F warmer. The low farm ground out here is apple and berry ground, and peaches and apricots want one of the rises.

Emmaus, Coopersburg, Quakertown and Upper Bucks

Emmaus, at the foot of South Mountain, plans for −9°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter of 3°F, and reads 4°F colder than downtown Allentown at bloom. The hills south of town read warm: Old Zionsville and Limeport Hill, about 300 feet up, plan for −8°F and read 6°F warmer. Coopersburg, on a flat 10 feet above its floor, plans for −11°F and reads 11°F colder, one of the frostiest towns on the map. Quakertown, on flat ground at 500 feet, plans for −10°F, MFTC zone 5b, with a typical winter of 2°F, and reads 7°F colder. Milford Square reads 8°F colder, while Trumbauersville, 70 feet up, plans for −8°F. Bucksville's crossroads plans for −13°F, and the map reads the Bucksville station's lower spot at −17°F.

Spring frost and bloom in the Lehigh Valley

Spring is where this valley loses its fruit. In April 2026 the Allentown airport hit 24°F after highs up to 89°F the week before. Penn State's Daniel Weber estimated statewide losses of 70 to 90 percent for many fruit crops, and Scholl Orchards ran propane Frost Dragons, wind machines, frost candles and fans. A first cold snap weakens the blossoms and a second finishes them. 2022 went the same way at Scholl's.

Bloom-night frost follows the winter drainage, only shallower. The FAO's frost protection manual says the cold layer on a spring frost night usually tops out 30 to 200 feet above the ground, and the map shows just that. Spots right on a floor mostly read 5°F to 14°F colder than downtown Allentown, spots 100 to 200 feet up mostly read within 3°F of it, and the South Mountain shoulders 300 to 570 feet up mostly read 5°F to 9°F warmer. Open blossoms of apples, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots and plums all start dying near 28°F, by Michigan State's numbers, so a few degrees is the difference between thinning and no crop.

NOAA station records put it in days. For 1991 to 2020 the median last 32°F frost at the Allentown airport is April 24 and its last 28°F April 6, and one year in ten the last 32°F comes May 15 or later. The first fall 32°F comes October 19, for 175 frost-free days. The Bucksville station, the coldest station on the map, has May 6 and 158 days, while the Springtown station, up on its hill at 860 feet, has April 18 and 188 days. That's 30 days of season between two stations 6 miles apart.

Put the earliest bloomers (apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and almonds) on your highest ground, on a slope where cold keeps moving past and out below. Penn State says north exposures delay bloom past late frosts, and Bob Purvis likes an east slope because it warms quickly on a frosty morning. Don't plug the bottom of a slope with a hedge, fence or brush; it backs cold air up into the trees above. Through bloom, mow the orchard floor short and water a day or two before a frost night. Low ground is for apples (Minnesota's fruit people say only about 15 percent of the blossoms need to set for a crop), haskap, whose open flowers take 19°F by the University of Saskatchewan's numbers, and the bush fruit. Wind machines help on still nights and do nothing in a windy freeze.

What the weather records say

The coldest readings at any station on this map are −23°F at Palmerton and at Bucksville on January 21, 1994, the same date as the Allentown airport's record of −15°F over 87 years of NOAA station records. The old Quakertown station hit −20°F twice (January 30, 1928 and February 28, 1934), old Lehigh University −16°F (January 14, 1912) and the old Phillipsburg station −15°F (January 22, 1961). At most stations the 30-year number sits 1°F to 3°F below the coldest reading since 1995; the airport's own is −11°F, and it hasn't gone below −9°F in that time.

USDA's 2023 map put Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton in zone 7a, an average coldest night of 0°F to 5°F, up from 6b on the 2012 map. That matches the map's typical winter (3°F in downtown Allentown, 4°F in Easton). Our MFTC zones read colder, 6a for most of the valley and 5b for Bethlehem, the East Penn Valley, Quakertown and Palmerton, because we plan for the bad night instead of the average one.

What you can grow here

Winter doesn't narrow the list much here. Everything we sell has come through −20°F or colder except the fig, and the coldest named place on the map plans for −15°F. So pick by site and bloom.

Hills, benches and the warm town blocks: −8°F or warmer

West Park and Old Allentown, College Hill, South Easton and Wilson, Phillipsburg and Lopatcong, Nazareth, and the South Mountain slopes. The early bloomers go here.

• Peaches: Contender (−30°F; 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), Blushingstar (−30°F; it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage) and Redstar (−25°F). Nectarines: Hardired (−25°F) and Fantasia (−20°F).
• Apricots, on the highest spot you have: Harlayne and Tomcot (−30°F).
• Sweet cherries: Lapins (−35°F), Stella (−25°F) and Bing (−20°F).
• Plums: Santa Rosa (−20°F) and Superior (−35°F), with Toka (−45°F), a good pollenizer for Superior. The pollination maps show the other pairings.
• Pears: Seckel (−35°F) and Harrow Sweet (−30°F).
• The Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) against a south or west wall, and SnowCzar Almond (−25°F).

The main valley floor and the western townships: −9°F to −12°F

Bethlehem, Emmaus, Macungie, Kutztown, Quakertown, Bath, Hellertown, Coopersburg and most of the farm ground between. Spring readings here run from even with downtown Allentown to 11°F colder, so check yours before you plant early bloomers, and keep pears to ground that reads near downtown or better.

• Apples: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Golden Russet (−40°F), Liberty (−35°F), Northern Spy and Stayman Winesap (−30°F), and Baldwin (−20°F), which clears every planning low on the map.
• Tart cherries: Montmorency and Balaton (−35°F). Plums: Italian (−35°F) and Stanley (−30°F).
• Pears on your better ground: Bartlett (−35°F). Grapes on a sunny slope: Marquette (−35°F).
• The fig clears down to −10°F and is worth a try against a south wall where the number is −11°F or −12°F.

Palmerton, Lehigh Gap and the cold bottoms: colder than −12°F

Palmerton, Aquashicola, Bowmanstown, Walnutport and Lehigh Gap, Laurys Station and Biery's Port, Maxatawny, Kintnersville, and the Bucksville station's low ground (about −17°F). Winter still clears everything but the fig. The spring readings here often run 9°F or 10°F colder than downtown Allentown, though, so plant for bloom:

• Apples and applecrabs: Haralson (−45°F), Wolf River (−50°F), and Kerr (−50°F) or Trailman (−55°F). If you only plant one tree, make it one of those two.
• Honeyberry (−50°F), plus Montana Black Currant (−50°F) and Red Lake currant (−40°F); both currants fruited well for us in 2026 after their flower buds saw about 22°F.
• Hinnomaki Red gooseberry (−40°F), Nova raspberry (−50°F), American Elderberry and Aronia (−50°F).

Roots are the weak spot in a mild valley with patchy snow: dormant apple roots are seriously injured near 10°F while the wood above can take about −40°F, and one local gardener's site calls snow cover here unreliable. Mulch the root zone, don't let the soil go into winter dry, and skip late nitrogen and heavy late water. Give trees at least 6 hours of direct sun (8 to 10 is better) and moving air, since leaves that dry fast get less disease. Penn State's rules: standing water 24 hours after a spring rain means the spot is too wet, and brambles go away from black walnuts and off old tomato, pepper, eggplant or potato ground, because of Verticillium.

Fruit history here

Harry Clay Trexler bought up and merged dozens of Lehigh County farms, and by 1932 Trexler Orchards ran past 1,800 acres. When he died in 1933 it had 36,000 apple trees, 30,000 peach trees and 5,000 cherry, plum and pear trees, and parts of his game preserve, now the Trexler Nature Preserve on Schochary Ridge near Schnecksville, were apple orchard. In Bethlehem, Burnside Plantation, a 6.5-acre Moravian farm inside the city, still keeps an orchard, and Pennsylvania Dutch apple butter still sells at the Allentown Farmer's Market and on Easton's Centre Square. Commercial grapes started in 1974 at Vynecrest and Clover Hill, and the Lehigh Valley AVA, set up in 2008, has about a dozen wineries, a growing season of 161 to 180 days and cold hardy Marquette among its grapes. Penn State calls peaches and nectarines Pennsylvania's second tree fruit crop, and you can still pick them at Bob White Acres in Coopersburg, with more fruit at Gogle Farms, Grim's in Breinigsville, Bechdolt's and Scholl's.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Allentown, PA?

Downtown Allentown plans for −7°F, MFTC zone 6a, with a typical winter of 3°F; West Park plans for −6°F and the river floor −11°F. USDA's 2023 map puts Allentown in zone 7a (0°F to 5°F), up from 6b. USDA averages each winter's coldest night, and we plan for the bad one.

Is the Lehigh Valley zone 6 or 7?

USDA's 2023 map makes it mostly 7a, with 6b on the northern and higher ground. On ours the middle of the valley plans for −10°F, MFTC zone 6a, and Bethlehem, Kutztown, Quakertown and Palmerton fall in 5b. Either way, nearly everything we sell clears it.

When is the last frost in the Lehigh Valley?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the Allentown airport a median last 32°F frost of April 24, and one year in ten it's May 15 or later. The Phillipsburg-Easton bridge station's median is April 15. The Bucksville station, on cold low ground, has May 6.

Can you grow peaches in the Lehigh Valley?

Yes. Every peach we sell has come through −25°F or colder, well below any planning low here, and Trexler's orchards once held 30,000 peach trees. The risk is spring frost, so plant them on a slope that reads near or above downtown Allentown on the spring layer, not on a creek floor.

Where are the frost pockets in the Lehigh Valley?

On the floors and creek bottoms. Palmerton and the Aquashicola valley read 9°F to 10°F colder than downtown Allentown at bloom, Coopersburg 11°F, the Lower Saucon floor 10°F and Durham Furnace on the Delaware 14°F. At Scholl Orchards the bottom of the hill ran 4°F colder than the top on one frost night and lost its crop.

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.