Fruit Trees for Middlebury, Vergennes and the Champlain Valley of Vermont

On the night of May 17, 2023, with Champlain Valley orchards at or near bloom, the wind died and the temperature dropped below freezing by midnight. The weather station at Cornwall bottomed out at 29.8°F, one of the mildest readings in Vermont, yet Addison County orchards a few miles inland still took heavy losses. The only orchards in the state with less than half their crop damaged sat on Lake Champlain or within about a quarter mile of it. With fruit trees for Middlebury, Vergennes and the Champlain Valley of Vermont, a few hundred feet of hillside, or a short walk to the water, decides the crop.

This microclimate map covers the southern Champlain Valley in Addison County: the lake towns along Vermont 22A, the Otter Valley from Leicester and Cornwall north through Middlebury to Vergennes, and the Green Mountain front from Lake Dunmore to Bristol and Lincoln. 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, plus a small nudge for the ground right around you. It's a safe number to plan for, not a record. 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, which is why USDA's zones read warmer than ours. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than Middlebury on a still, clear night at bloom.

Middlebury plans for −32°F, MFTC zone 3b, with a typical winter of −16°F, close to the middle of the map: half the growing ground plans between −32°F and −30°F. The warm end is the lake plain around Vergennes, Addison and Panton (−28°F, zone 4a) and the hills standing out of it, like Marsh Hill (−24°F, zone 4b). The cold end is the mountain valleys and the wet floors of the Otter Valley, down to −34°F. Across the named places, the spring layer runs from 8°F colder than Middlebury to 14°F warmer.

Why the map looks the way it does

Lake Champlain sits at 95 to 100 feet, and the ground steps east from it across the Vermont Lowlands, the clay bottom of glacial Lake Vermont and the Champlain Sea. Otter Creek, the longest river wholly inside Vermont, wanders north across that plain over falls at Middlebury and Vergennes, fed by the Middlebury and New Haven rivers out of the Green Mountains and by the Lemon Fair and Dead Creek out of the farmland. Nearly everything drains to Otter Creek, and on a clear, calm night so does the cold air.

The cold settles on the lowest, wettest, most enclosed ground. Otter Creek has one of the most intact, wide floodplains in Vermont, spreading into alder swamp and marsh (Cornwall Swamp and the Dead Creek flats are the big ones), and the poorly drained clays sit in depressions on the lake plain with the water table roughly half a foot to 2 feet down. Ground like that runs cold because it's low, grassy and often organic. The floors within 3 miles of Cornwall, Leicester, Whiting, Salisbury, Shoreham and East Middlebury all plan for −34°F, while the benches 100 to 700 feet up plan for −30°F to −31°F.

NOAA station records back that up. The Salisbury 2 N station, two miles north of Salisbury, is only 75 feet higher than the Cornwall station, yet it holds the coldest reading on file here: −37°F on January 27, 1994, when Cornwall read −30°F. Its frost-free season runs 126 days to Cornwall's 148. Those are frost-pocket numbers. Not every outbreak sorts that way: on February 5, 2023 South Lincoln, about 1,000 feet higher, read −30°F to Cornwall's −25°F. When arctic air comes in on a wind there's no inversion, and higher ground is simply colder.

The mountain front adds height and closed-in valleys. The South Lincoln station runs 4°F colder than Cornwall in the median yearly low, and Lincoln village, on the New Haven River floor under Mount Abraham, plans for −34°F, the coldest town point on the map. Where the rivers leave the mountains, the gorges pour cold air out onto the floor: East Middlebury, on the floor below the Middlebury River gorge, plans for −33°F. Bristol sits at the same kind of spot on the New Haven River but on a terrace 160 feet above its floor, and it plans for −30°F and reads 7°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom. Height above your own floor counts for more than height above the sea.

Above the pools sits the thermal belt, the band of slope that stays milder on still nights. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaged 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet higher, and the spring layer here runs bigger than that. Weybridge Hill, 270 feet above its floor, reads 8°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom, and Weybridge village, in a draw less than 2 miles away, 8°F colder. Chipman Hill, Snake Mountain, the hills around Shoreham and Bridport and the slopes above Lake Dunmore all read 10°F to 14°F warmer.

Then there's the lake. Lake Champlain averages 64 feet deep, so while it's open it keeps its shore milder into winter, then stays cold in spring and holds bloom back. But a lake only shelters its shore while it's mostly free of ice, and the National Weather Service in Burlington notes it does more for the first fall freeze than the last spring one. Down here it's narrow, about a mile wide off Shoreham and 2 miles off Panton. On the winter number the warm end is the north end of the lake plain, where Vergennes, Addison and Panton plan for −28°F while Bridport and Shoreham plan for −30°F to −32°F. The Vergennes station backs that up (its own 30-year number is −27°F), though it has only about a dozen winters on file.

Snow matters for roots, and the mountain front gets far more of it. Bristol averages 124.3 inches a year and Cornwall 58.6, and in one old study frost went 24 inches into bare soil but only 6 inches where snow was held.

Middlebury, Chipman Hill and the village

Middlebury grew up around the falls of Otter Creek, with Chipman Hill, a glacial till hill, rising about 450 feet to the northeast. The town point sits on a toe slope 30 feet above the floor at 367 feet and plans for −32°F, zone 3b, with a typical winter of −16°F. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −33°F and the benches −30°F. The Village Historic District around the falls plans the same −32°F, but it sits on a 9 percent slope 50 feet up, so the cold runs off toward the creek, and it reads 4°F warmer at bloom.

Climb a little and it gets better fast. Bushey's Corner, on a bench 130 feet up northeast of the village, plans for −29°F, zone 4a, and reads 6°F warmer at bloom, and the upper slopes of Chipman Hill plan for −27°F and read 13°F warmer. Middlebury College's campus, on the hill west of the village, belongs with the benches. Down low, Buttolph Acres, on the flat just east of the village, plans for −31°F but reads 3°F colder at bloom, and Piper Crossing, 3 miles south, plans for −33°F and reads 5°F colder.

On the village lots, plant the apples UVM recommends for Vermont that are also on our list: Honeycrisp and Snowsweet® (−45°F), Zestar!®, Cortland and Swiss Gourmet (aka Arlet) (−40°F), and Macoun and Empire (−35°F). Add Superior plums (−35°F) with Toka (−45°F) as the pollenizer (our pollination maps show the pairings). Save Lapins cherries (−35°F) and Contender peaches (−30°F) for Bushey's Corner and Chipman Hill.

East Middlebury, Ripton and Bread Loaf

East Middlebury sits beside the Middlebury River where it leaves its gorge, at the west end of the pass over Middlebury Gap, and on a still night that gorge is a chute for cold air off the mountains. The village, on the floor at 408 feet, plans for −33°F, zone 3b, with a typical winter of −18°F, and reads 3°F colder than Middlebury at bloom; its floor plans for −34°F and its benches −31°F. Just south, the old Plains School site, on a bench 180 feet up, plans for −31°F and reads 2°F warmer.

Up the gorge, Ripton village sits in the river's draw at 1,080 feet, plans for −33°F and reads 5°F colder at bloom. Bread Loaf, home of Middlebury College's Bread Loaf campus, sits on a toe slope at 1,424 feet, off the bottom of the draw, and plans for −32°F and reads 2°F warmer. Plant Kerr applecrabs (−50°F), Haralson apples (−45°F), Ure pears (−40°F), Evan's Bali tart cherries (−45°F) and Honeyberry (−50°F), and skip the late apples.

Vergennes, Panton, Addison and the lower Otter

Vergennes, the Little City on the Falls, sits where Otter Creek drops 37 feet about 7 miles above its mouth. The map point, at 229 feet, plans for −28°F, zone 4a, with a typical winter of −14°F, and reads 6°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom. Its floor plans for −29°F and its benches −26°F, the warmest of any town. Marsh Hill, 1.5 miles north, plans for −24°F, zone 4b, and reads 10°F warmer. Rock Landing, on the river bottom toward the lake at 92 feet, plans for −30°F and reads 6°F colder. North toward Burlington, our Burlington, Stowe and Lamoille map picks up.

Panton is flat farmland with Dead Creek crossing it; its point, in a shallow draw at 188 feet, plans for −28°F and reads 3°F warmer than Middlebury. Addison, on a bench 170 feet above its floor, plans for −28°F and reads 6°F warmer, and West Addison, toward the lake, −28°F and 5°F warmer. The Dead Creek marshes through the middle of Addison are the cold ground, with the floor at −31°F. Snake Mountain, the Taconic outlier on the Addison and Weybridge line, plans for −27°F up high and reads 11°F warmer.

The benches and town lots here can grow stone fruit: Contender and Veteran peaches, Harlayne apricots, Rainier and Stella cherries, Stanley plums and D'Anjou pears (all −30°F). On Marsh Hill, Blushingstar peaches (−25°F) clear the number. Keep the Dead Creek flats and the lower Otter bottoms in apples and pears.

Shoreham, Bridport and the orchard hills on 22A

Shoreham is the apple town of the southern Champlain Valley, and the map shows part of why. The lake is about a mile wide here. Along the shore the land is low, rolling clay, and about a mile inland it rises into a band of slate hills with strong loam. The winter number isn't what sets Shoreham apart: the village, on a 7 percent hillside 100 feet up, plans for −32°F, zone 3b, about like Middlebury, with its floor at −34°F and its benches at −30°F. The spring layer is. The village reads 4°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom, and Mutton Hill, 360 feet above its floor, plans for −29°F and reads 13°F warmer. Down low, East Shoreham, at floor level, plans for −33°F and reads 7°F colder, and Richville, the old mill village on the Lemon Fair, 3°F colder.

Bridport is the same pattern. The village, on a bench 150 feet up, plans for −30°F and reads 4°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom. Hemingway Hill, south of the village, plans for −28°F and reads 13°F warmer, and Hamilton Hill, to the east, −29°F and 12°F warmer. Champlain Orchards, on Route 74 West in Shoreham overlooking the lake, grows 17 kinds of peaches along with its apples, pears, plums and cherries.

These hills are some of the best stone-fruit ground on the map. Plant Contender, Veteran and Siberian C (−35°F) peaches, Harlayne apricots, Lapins and Rainier cherries, Superior plums and Bartlett pears (−35°F). For cider, try Ellis Bitter and Binet Rouge (−30°F) and Golden Russet (−40°F). On the East Shoreham floor, stick with Haralson, Honeycrisp and Kerr.

Cornwall, Weybridge, Whiting and the Lemon Fair

This is the heart of the cold lowland. Otter Creek forms the line between Cornwall and Salisbury, with Cornwall Marsh along it, and the Lemon Fair runs north from southern Orwell through Shoreham to join Otter Creek in Weybridge, a drain for cold off all that clay. Cornwall village, on a bench 110 feet up, plans for −32°F, zone 3b, with a typical winter of −17°F, and reads 4°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom. Its floor plans for −34°F, the coldest town floor on the map. West Cornwall, 290 feet above its floor, plans for −29°F, zone 4a, and reads 7°F warmer. Sunrise Orchards, on North Bingham Street, grows heirloom and English cider apples.

Weybridge village is the worst bloom-night spot of any named place on the map. It sits in a draw at 161 feet, plans for −31°F and reads 8°F colder than Middlebury at bloom. Weybridge Hill, 1.9 miles south, plans for −29°F and reads 8°F warmer: 17°F between two spots in one town on one still night. Whiting, with Otter Creek along its east line, has a village point 90 feet above its floor that plans for −30°F, zone 4a, and reads 4°F warmer; its floor plans for −34°F.

On the Cornwall, Whiting and Weybridge floors, plant Kerr and Centennial applecrabs (−50°F), Wealthy (−50°F) and Haralson apples, Krasnobokaya pears (−50°F), Black Ice plums (−40°F) and Montana Black Currant (−50°F). Weybridge Hill and West Cornwall can take the Shoreham list.

Salisbury, Leicester and Lake Dunmore

Salisbury sits where the valley meets the Green Mountains, with US 7 through the middle. The village, on an 8 percent hillside at 435 feet, plans for −31°F, zone 3b, and reads 1°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom, while Salisbury Station, west of the village, plans for −32°F and reads 3°F colder. Leicester village, on a bench 100 feet up, plans for −32°F and reads 4°F warmer, but Leicester Junction, on the river bottom at 353 feet, plans for −33°F and reads 6°F colder. Both towns have floors at −34°F. South of Leicester, our Rutland and Otter Creek valley map covers you.

Lake Dunmore covers 985 acres at 559 feet, below the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area, and we couldn't find ice records for it. The Lake Dunmore hamlet plans for −31°F and reads 3°F colder than Middlebury at bloom, but the slopes above the water are another world: Sunset Hill, 520 feet above the floor, and Mount Pleasant, northeast of Leicester village, plan for −29°F and read 14°F warmer. There, try Westcot (−45°F) and Sungold (−40°F) apricots, Siberian C peaches and Lapins cherries. Down at Leicester Junction and Salisbury Station, it's Kerr, Haralson, Ure and Honeyberry.

Bristol, New Haven and Lincoln

Bristol sits at the western foot of the Green Mountains where the New Haven River comes out through town, with the village on the north side of the river. The downtown historic district, on a terrace 160 feet above the floor at 573 feet, plans for −30°F (a hair colder, so zone 3b) and reads 7°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom. New Haven village, on a bench 150 feet up, plans for −28°F, zone 4a, and reads 4°F warmer, with its floor at −31°F. Brooksville, where the New Haven River meets Otter Creek, and New Haven Junction, on the floor west of the village, read 7°F colder.

Lincoln is the cold one. The village sits at 971 feet on the New Haven River floor below Lincoln Gap, plans for −34°F, zone 3b, with a typical winter of −19°F, and reads 5°F colder than Middlebury at bloom. West Lincoln, in the draw where the river leaves town, reads 7°F colder, while Downingville, on a hillside 160 feet up, reads the same as Middlebury.

Bristol's terrace can take Siberian C peaches, Lapins cherries, Superior plums and Bartlett pears, and New Haven village Contender peaches and Rainier cherries too. In Lincoln, plant Kerr and Trailman (−60°F) applecrabs, Wealthy and Haralson apples, Krasnobokaya pears, Brookred plums (−50°F) and Honeyberry. The deep mountain snow helps: Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, with no rootstock damage.

Spring frost and bloom in the Champlain Valley

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 show the season shifting from spot to spot. At Cornwall the median last 32°F frost comes May 11, the last 28°F April 24 and the first fall 32°F October 5, a 148-day frost-free season, and one spring in ten the last 32°F comes May 21 or later. The Salisbury station gets its last 32°F on May 18 and last 28°F on May 10, with 126 days, and in a late year its last frost runs to June 5. South Lincoln gets May 21 and 120 days.

Line that up with bloom. UVM's South Burlington orchard had McIntosh in first bloom May 8 in 2023; at Cornwall the median last 28°F comes two weeks earlier, at the Salisbury station right about then. UVM says fruit buds generally take a light frost of 28°F to 32°F, and below 28°F the economic damage starts. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and haskap flowers take 19°F wide open, so apples and haskap can carry the cold spots.

In the May 2023 freeze most growers reporting estimated losses of 95 percent or more, while a handful of lake orchards held losses to 35 percent or less. At Chapin Orchard in Essex Junction, north of the map, the low end took more damage because cold air sinks.

So put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries where the spring layer reads well warmer than Middlebury: the Shoreham and Bridport hills, Weybridge Hill, West Cornwall, Chipman Hill, the slopes above Lake Dunmore, Bristol's terrace and the lake plain near Vergennes. Spots that read 5°F or more colder (Weybridge village, Brooksville, East Shoreham, Leicester Junction and the Lincoln and Ripton draws) get apples, pears, haskap, currants and gooseberries like Invicta (−40°F). Through bloom, mow short, don't till, and open up any hedge or tree line damming cold air below your trees. That works on still nights; in a windy freeze the warm hills lose their edge.

What the weather records say

The coldest morning on file here is January 27, 1994: −37°F at the Salisbury station, −35°F at South Lincoln and −30°F at Cornwall. UVM says the winters of 1993 to 1994 and 2003 to 2004 killed many fruit trees in Vermont. Cornwall's own record, over 102 years, is −31°F on February 1, 1920. Since 1995 the Cornwall station hasn't gone below −29°F, while its 30-year planning number is −33°F.

The lake keeps its own record. The National Weather Service in Burlington tracks when the broad lake closes with ice, and it closes later and less often now: it stayed open every winter from 2020 to 2025, closed February 13, 2026 for the first time since 2019, and hasn't closed in January since 2004.

USDA builds its zones on the average winter's coldest night. The Cornwall station's average yearly low, −18°F, falls in USDA's 5a band and South Lincoln's −21°F in 4b, and Seven Days reported that most of central Vermont moved from 4b to 5a on the 2023 map. Our zones here run 3b and 4a, with a little 4b on the warm hills, because we plan for the bad night.

What you can grow here

Our ratings are each plant's coldest known survival, so compare them straight to your number, then let the spring reading decide where the early bloomers go.

The lake plain and the warm hills, −29°F or warmer (Vergennes, Addison, Panton, New Haven village, Weybridge Hill, West Cornwall, Bushey's Corner, the Shoreham and Bridport hills): Contender, Veteran and Siberian C peaches, Harlayne and Tomcot (−30°F) apricots, Rainier, Stella and Lapins cherries, Stanley and Italian (−35°F) plums, D'Anjou and Bartlett pears, and Liberty and Northern Spy (−30°F) apples. Montana Trial Pawpaw (−30°F) fits too, and Blushingstar and Persimmon (Montana Trial) (both −25°F) are worth a try on the warmest of it.

Middlebury and the Otter Creek towns, −30°F to −33°F (Middlebury, Bristol, Cornwall, Shoreham, Salisbury, Leicester, Whiting, Bridport, Weybridge, East Middlebury, Ripton): Honeycrisp, Snowsweet®, Zestar!®, Cortland, Red McIntosh (−40°F), Macoun and Empire apples, Flemish Beauty and Summercrisp (−40°F) pears, Superior and Toka plums, Lapins and Meteor (−40°F) cherries, Marquette grapes (−35°F), Honeyberry, Pink Champagne currants (−40°F) and Boyne raspberries (−40°F). Contender and Liberty (−30°F) are worth a try on the warmer lots.

The coldest floors and the mountain valleys, −33°F to −35°F (Lincoln, the Cornwall, Leicester, Whiting and Salisbury floors, Leicester Junction, Piper Crossing, East Shoreham): Kerr, Centennial and Trailman applecrabs, Wealthy, Haralson and Wolf River (−45°F) apples, Krasnobokaya and Ure pears, Toka, Brookred and Black Ice plums, Evan's Bali and Romeo (−50°F) cherries, Valiant grapes (−50°F), Honeyberry and Montana Black Currant.

For rootstocks, UVM rates MM.111 the most cold-hardy readily available stock, B.9 very cold-hardy but in need of support, and B.118 highly hardy; keep M.26 and MM.106 off the wet clay flats. Plant on a 4 to 8 percent slope, not in the bottom and not on a windswept top. An east-facing slope warms quickly on a frosty spring morning, and a north slope holds apricots and plums back. UVM treats sites under 135 frost-free days as short-season country, which takes in the Salisbury station's 126 days, so frost pockets and mountain towns should stick to early and midseason apples. Put mouse guards on the bottom 2 feet of trunk for voles. Scab, fire blight and codling moth are the big local problems.

Fruit history in Addison County

Abijah North came to Shoreham in 1774 and planted an apple orchard from seed on his clearing, later part of the Cream Hill Stock Farm. Douglas Orchards in Shoreham began as a dairy farm bought in 1898 and went to fruit after the cows; in 2020 it went to Champlain Orchards, where orchardist Zeke Goodband grafted about two dozen heirloom varieties. Today Shacksbury Cider in Vergennes forages old and rare Addison County apples.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Middlebury, VT?

Middlebury plans for −32°F, MFTC zone 3b, with a typical winter of −16°F. USDA's zones are based on an average winter's coldest night, and the Cornwall station's average yearly low, −18°F, falls in USDA's 5a band; ours is built on the bad night we plan for. Bushey's Corner and Chipman Hill plan for −29°F to −27°F, zone 4a.

When is the last frost in Middlebury, VT?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F frost at Cornwall, the nearest long record on the valley floor, on May 11, and one year in ten it comes May 21 or later. Frost pockets run later: the Salisbury station's median is May 18, with June 5 in a late year.

Does Lake Champlain protect orchards from frost?

Only close in. In the May 18, 2023 freeze, orchards within about a quarter mile of the lake were the only ones in Vermont with less than half their crop damaged. In winter the lake only helps while it's open.

Can you grow peaches around Middlebury and the Champlain Valley?

On the right ground, yes. Contender (−30°F) and Siberian C (−35°F) clear the −28°F to −29°F planning lows on the lake plain and the warm hills. The crop is another matter: UVM says peach fruit buds are hardy only to about −15°F, and Cornwall's average yearly low is −18°F, so expect years without peaches.

Why are there so many orchards in Shoreham, VT?

Shoreham has slate hills with strong loam about a mile back from a lake about a mile wide. On a still spring night those hills drain, and Mutton Hill reads 13°F warmer than Middlebury at bloom.

What's the best apple rootstock for the Champlain Valley?

UVM rates MM.111 the most cold-hardy readily available rootstock, with B.9 very cold-hardy and B.118 highly hardy. Keep M.26 and MM.106 off wet sites, which rules them out on the poorly drained lake clays.

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.