Fruit Trees for Muscatine, Washington and Mount Pleasant, Iowa

In the January 16, 2009 cold snap, NOAA's Muscatine 2N station, up on the High Prairie north of town at 698 ft, bottomed out at −20°F. The Muscatine station on the bottomland toward the Island, 149 ft lower and 5 miles away, read −28°F. That 8°F gap is the first thing to know about fruit trees for Muscatine, Washington and Mount Pleasant: on a still, clear night the cold settles into the river bottoms, and a few dozen feet of height decides what lives and what crops.

The map covers this stretch of Southeast Iowa from the Mississippi bottoms west past Washington and Kalona, taking in Wapello, Columbus Junction, Fruitland, Riverside, Brighton and New London. 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

Every number is a 30-year planning low, the number our cold hardiness calculator gives (NOAA station records since the 1995-96 winter, adjusted for the lay of the land), nudged for the ground right around you. It's a safe number to plan on, not the record or 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 map uses, which is why USDA's zones read warmer. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Muscatine on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Muscatine, the reference, plans for −30°F (MFTC zone 4a) with a typical winter of −13°F. The middle of the growing ground plans for −28°F, and half of it falls between −29°F and −27°F. The warm end is high ground away from the big bottoms: Havre at −24°F and New London, Brighton and Columbus City at −25°F, all zone 4b. The cold end, −31°F or colder, is the Mississippi bottomland toward the Island (−32°F, zone 3b), Wapello, Oakland Mills on the Skunk and the village of Letts.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is loess hill country, the Southern Iowa Drift Plain, cut by four rivers. The uplands run about 750 to 810 ft, and the Skunk, English, Iowa and Cedar drain them to the Mississippi bottom at 541 to 551 ft. In between lies the Iowa-Cedar Lowland, a broad, flat floodplain of glacial outwash from Iowa City and Moscow down to Columbus Junction, long called the Lake Calvin basin (sources disagree on whether it ever held a lake). On a clear, calm night the low ground makes its own cold and the uplands send more down the valleys.

Muscatine shows it best. The NOAA station on the bottomland between downtown and Fruitland, at 549 ft, has run a median 3°F colder on the year's coldest night than Muscatine 2N, and the gap opens in big outbreaks: 8°F in January 2009, 6°F in January 2019 (−31°F against −25°F). It has the coldest 30-year number of any station here, −32°F, its −34°F on February 3, 1996 is the coldest reading on file inside the map, and it gets 176 frost-free days to the upland's 185. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaging 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet higher, so this is normal physics.

Wide, flat bottoms can pool hard: a broad, shallow basin can just fill, where a deep valley drains. Muscatine Island was river bed once, and its Fruitland coarse sand drains so fast growers say it never saturates. Dry sand warms quickly on a spring afternoon, which suits melons, and most likely gives that heat back just as fast on a clear night, though we haven't found a local measurement. The old oxbows at Cone Marsh and the closed depressions with 8 to 20 ft of organic fill northwest of Muscatine should be cold ground too.

The river does less than you'd think. Upper Mississippi backwaters normally freeze over by December, and water only shelters its shore while it's open. The main channel freezes only in the coldest years, and the stations right on it run milder: Illinois City Dam 16, at the same height as the Muscatine station 4 miles away, runs a median 3°F warmer on the year's coldest night, and New Boston Dam 17 4°F warmer. Open water at the dams likely explains part of that, though we haven't found a local study.

The cold doesn't land the same way every time. In the February 1996 outbreak Muscatine read −34°F and Washington −26°F; in January 2009 Washington hit −32°F, its record, while Muscatine read −28°F. Arctic air on a wind flattens the pattern, calm nights let the bottoms pull away, and the planning low draws on both. Town cores get up to 2.5°F on the map from pavement and buildings.

The spring layer follows the same drainage, only sharper, since spring frost pools usually top out 30 to 200 ft up. Merrimac, Rome and Oakland Mills in the Skunk country read 7°F colder than downtown Muscatine on a still bloom night, the coldest of any named place we checked. Westwood, on a 10 percent hillside 100 ft above its floor, and Toolesboro, on high ground above the Iowa River mouth, read 6°F warmer. The winter number takes that fine terrain at a quarter strength, so Westwood still plans for −29°F.

Muscatine, West Hill and the High Prairie

Muscatine's original town sits on the river flats. Papoose Creek and Mad Creek split the highland behind it into three ridge-like hills, and on a still night their valleys carry cold down onto those flats. West Hill has the makings of good fruit ground: a bluff along its south-southeast edge, houses on W. 2nd and W. 3rd Streets looking over the river, and a crest at Reservoir Park. Cold slides off a bluff edge toward the river, so yards near the top should stay milder than Fifth Street, which sits mostly on lower ground.

Downtown, 40 ft above the floor, plans for −30°F, zone 4a. Within 3 miles the floor runs −31°F and the hills and benches −28°F. The High Prairie north of town, the upland crescent between the Cedar and the Mississippi that's turning into housing, is the best ground: at Muscatine 2N, 70 ft above its floor, the map plans for −26°F and reads 4°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Northeast toward Davenport, the Quad Cities map takes over.

Downtown's −30°F takes anything rated −30°F or colder, but go to −35°F for room: Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (the hardiest we've found), Superior plum with Toka to pollenize it, and Freedom apple. On West Hill and the High Prairie, Contender peach (−30°F) fits; 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.

Muscatine Island and Fruitland

The Island is the wide, flat plain south of the city, about 27,000 acres between the Mississippi and the Muscatine Slough. Its Fruitland coarse sand, well drained and under 3 percent organic matter, cuts both ways for fruit trees: roots never sit wet, but the ground is low, flat and open, with nowhere for still air to go.

Fruitland, 10 ft above the floor, plans for −30°F with a typical winter of −12°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown Muscatine at bloom; the coldest tenth of the ground around it plans for −33°F, the coldest tenth around any town we checked. Kammerer Trailer Court, on the river bottom, plans for −29°F and reads 5°F colder in spring, and at the Muscatine station the map plans for −32°F, zone 3b. Plant for −35°F and frosty bloom nights: Haralson and Wolf River apples, Kerr applecrab, Honeyberry and Montana Black Currant, not apricots or sweet cherries. Island growers name herbicide drift as a problem, so keep trees away from sprayed fields.

Columbus Junction, Nichols and the Iowa-Cedar Lowland

The Cedar crosses the Lowland on broad outwash with low terraces, oxbows and meander scars. Nichols, 20 ft above its floor, plans for −29°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown Muscatine at bloom. Conesville plans for −27°F but reads 4°F colder in spring, and Bethel, on the floor, −29°F and 4°F colder. Toward Muscatine, Cranston plans for −30°F and Letts, on the upland, −31°F, both zone 3b; Letts plans colder than its benches (−29°F), so look for the higher lots there. On the Lowland floor, plant apples and bush fruit rated −35°F or colder, use any sandy rise, and stay out of the closed depressions.

Columbus Junction sits where the Iowa and Cedar meet, by the 1922 Swinging Bridge. The town climbs a 10 percent slope 50 ft above the floor, plans for −27°F, and reads 3°F warmer than downtown Muscatine at bloom; within 3 miles the floor runs −28°F and the benches −25°F. Its NOAA station, a quarter mile from town, has a 30-year number of −27°F and the earliest median first fall frost of the stations here, October 10. Columbus City, 120 ft above its floor, plans for −25°F, zone 4b, and reads 2°F warmer, with room for Stella sweet cherry and Sungold apricot, which Iowa State lists statewide.

Wapello, Lake Odessa and the lower Iowa River

Wapello sits on the west side of the Iowa River at 584 ft, down on the bottom, and plans for −31°F, zone 3b, with a typical winter of −14°F; it reads 2°F colder than downtown Muscatine at bloom. Lake Odessa, a back-channel lake of about 3,000 acres 5 miles east, does nothing for the bottoms once it freezes. Port Louisa plans for −30°F, and Oakville and Huron, the lowest named places at 541 ft, −29°F and −28°F; all three read 4°F colder at bloom. Climb out and it changes: Grandview, 100 ft above its floor, plans for −28°F against −31°F on the floor around it, and Toolesboro, on high ground near the Toolesboro Mound Group, reads 6°F warmer than downtown Muscatine at bloom. West of the river, Cairo, on a bench 110 ft up, plans for −27°F and reads 3°F warmer. Put apricots and sweet cherries up there and keep the bottoms for apples and bush fruit.

Washington, Brighton and the Washington County upland

Washington, the "City of Flowers and Trees," sits on flat upland at 758 ft and plans for −26°F, zone 4a, with a typical winter of −12°F, even with downtown Muscatine at bloom. Within 3 miles the warmest tenth of the ground plans for −25°F and the coldest −28°F. Its long-record NOAA station, about 1.4 miles southwest and 74 ft lower, has a 30-year number of −29°F and set its −32°F record on January 16, 2009; the map plans for −28°F there. The automated station at 751 ft has a 30-year number of −24°F. We don't know exactly what the town station sits in, but 5°F over 64 ft fits the pattern. Up toward Iowa City, the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City map covers you.

Brighton, on a bench 110 ft above its floor, plans for −25°F, zone 4b, and reads 4°F warmer than downtown Muscatine at bloom. Lake Darling, 302 acres on Honey Creek 3 miles west, is too small to count on for winter warmth. Havre plans for −24°F, Crawfordsville −26°F, and Ainsworth and Grace Hill −27°F; Grace Hill reads 4°F warmer at bloom and Havre 4°F colder. This upland is the warm side of the map. Contender and Veteran peaches and Stanley plum (all −30°F) fit with room, and at Brighton Blushingstar peach (−25°F) fits too; it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage.

Kalona, Riverside and the English River

The English River valley is the cold line across the north of Washington County. Kalona, home of Iowa's oldest Amish settlement (1846), sits on the English only 10 ft above the floor and plans for −29°F, zone 4a, with a typical winter of −14°F; it reads 3°F colder than downtown Muscatine at bloom. Riverside, on the north bank, also plans for −29°F and reads 2°F colder, and Iowa Junction, on the bottom just east, 5°F colder. The benches around both towns plan for −27°F. Richmond, 100 ft above its floor south of Kalona, plans for −27°F and reads 4°F warmer than downtown Muscatine at bloom, and Daytonville, 110 ft up beside Wellman, plans for −26°F and reads 4°F warmer. Put apricots and sweet cherries up there, not on the English River floor.

Mount Pleasant, New London and the Skunk River

Mount Pleasant, the Henry County seat and home of the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, sits on upland 70 ft above its floor and plans for −29°F, zone 4a, with a typical winter of −12°F; it reads a little warmer than downtown Muscatine at bloom. Within 3 miles the warmest tenth of the ground plans for −26°F and the coldest −31°F, about as much range as around any town we checked. The stations show why. Mount Pleasant 1 SW, about 1.7 miles west of town at 724 ft, has a 30-year number of −31°F, and the airport station, 3 miles southeast at 728 ft, −25°F. That's more than 5°F at the same height, we haven't found a published explanation, and the map runs cold west of town and mild to the southeast.

The cold side is the Skunk. Oakland Mills, on the Skunk bottom southwest of town at 567 ft, plans for −32°F, zone 3b, and reads 7°F colder than downtown Muscatine at bloom. Rome, upstream on the Skunk, and Merrimac to the north sit in cold-air drainage channels; both plan for −29°F and read 7°F colder in spring. Two miles north of Oakland Mills, Westwood sits on a 10 percent hillside 100 ft above its floor and reads 6°F warmer than downtown Muscatine at bloom, because the cold slides past it downhill. That hillside is where I'd put apricots around Mount Pleasant; the Skunk bottoms are for apples and bush fruit.

East of town, New London, at 769 ft, plans for −25°F, zone 4b, and its typical winter of −9°F is the mildest of any named place on the map. The −25°F peaches fit there, with nothing to spare: Blushingstar, Glowingstar and Risingstar, plus Hardired nectarine. Wayland plans for −26°F and Winfield −27°F, and Lockridge, on a bench 110 ft up in Jefferson County, plans for −26°F and reads 3°F warmer at bloom.

Spring frost and bloom in Southeast Iowa

Bloom-night frost follows the same drainage as winter cold, and the FAO's frost protection manual calls site selection the single most important method of frost protection. Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum start dying near 28°F (Michigan State's numbers), so a spot 4°F colder than town can lose a crop the town keeps. Iowa State's advice: a slightly raised spot, and no peaches in low areas.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last 32°F on April 18 or 19 at Muscatine, Columbus Junction, Washington and Mount Pleasant, with 170 to 176 frost-free days. Muscatine 2N gets its last 32°F on April 15 and 185 days, and Gladstone Lock and Dam 18, on the river just outside the map, April 10 and 194 days. The last 28°F comes a week or two earlier, April 7 to 13 at the long-record stations. One spring in 10 the last 32°F comes as late as May 4 at Muscatine and May 6 to 9 at Washington, Columbus Junction and Mount Pleasant.

April 2012 shows the risk. An unusually warm early spring pushed fruit into bloom, then freezes on April 10 and 11 took Iowa State's Horticulture Research Station to 20°F, with little apple crop expected. Across the river in western Illinois, peaches came through almost untouched except on poorly air-drained ground.

So put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries on the high ground with the best spring reading (Westwood, Toolesboro, the High Prairie, Brighton, Richmond, Daytonville) and give the Skunk bottoms, the Island and the Lowland floor to apples, haskap and bush fruit. Iowa State says apricots crop well about one year in three. You don't need every blossom, though: about 15 percent of apple blossoms make a crop, sweet cherries can lose half their flowers and still crop, and open haskap flowers take 19°F. Through bloom, mow 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.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records here go back to the 1890s. The coldest on file: −35°F at the old Stockport station, just off the map's edge, on January 22, 1930; −34°F at Muscatine and the Iowa City airport on February 3, 1996; −32°F at Washington on January 16, 2009; −30°F at Columbus Junction in 1996; and only −27°F at Mount Pleasant 1 SW.

The long-record stations average −14°F to −15°F for the year's coldest night, about where USDA's zones 5a and 5b meet, and Iowa State uses Oskaloosa, zone 5b, as its southeast Iowa example. Our zones run a full zone or more colder because we plan for the bad night: NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below a station's average winter low. Timing matters too. The Armistice Day storm of November 11 and 12, 1940 dropped temperatures 50°F across Iowa, and Iowa's 1941 apple crop was about 15 percent of normal.

What you can grow around Muscatine, Washington and Mount Pleasant

Every plant we sell is zoned to the coldest temperature it's come through, so match that to your planning low, then think about bloom. Most need a pollenizer; our pollination maps show what pairs up. Iowa State's home advice fits: a raised, well-drained site at pH 6.5 to 7.0, disease-resistant apples like Liberty and Freedom, EMLA 7, B9 or G41 rootstock (M26 is fire blight prone), and no Honeycrisp or Cortland unless you'll spray often.

High ground that plans for −27°F or warmer

Washington, New London, Brighton, Havre, Columbus City, Columbus Junction's slopes, Crawfordsville, Wayland, Lockridge, Lone Tree and the High Prairie.

• Apples: Liberty, Freedom, Golden Russet, Northern Spy, Zestar!®
• Pears: Bartlett, Seckel, D'Anjou
• Plums: Stanley, Italian, Superior with Toka
• Cherries: Stella, Lapins, Gold, Black Gold and White Gold (Iowa State lists Gold, BlackGold and WhiteGold for the southern two-thirds of Iowa); Montmorency tart
• Peaches and apricots: Contender and Veteran; Harlayne and Sungold apricots where spring reads warm
• Vines and more: Marquette and Concord grapes, Montana Trial Pawpaw

Worth a try on the best lots, and a fit outright at New London, Havre and Brighton: Blushingstar, Glowingstar and Risingstar peaches, Hardired nectarine and Baldwin apple, all −25°F.

The middle: −28°F to −30°F

Downtown Muscatine, Fruitland, Kalona, Riverside, Wellman, Nichols, Mount Pleasant, Morning Sun, Grandview, Toolesboro and Westwood.

• Apples: Haralson, Wolf River, Sweet Sixteen, Ashmead's Kernel; Centennial applecrab
• Pears, off the low spots: Ure, Summercrisp
• Plums: Mount Royal (Iowa State's pick for anywhere in Iowa); Alderman and Pipestone with Toka, which Iowa State calls an excellent pollenizer for them
• Cherries: Lapins and Gold where spring reads warm; Evan's Bali tart; Romeo dwarf cherry
• Peaches and apricots: Siberian C peach, the hardiest we think is out there (it ripens very late); Westcot apricot on your highest spot
• Berries and vines: Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Red Lake currant, Pixwell gooseberry, Frontenac grape

Contender and Veteran (−30°F) fit the −28°F end of this band, with nothing to spare at −30°F.

The zone 3b bottoms: −30°F to −33°F

Wapello, Letts, Cranston, Oakland Mills and the bottomland toward the Island, most of which also reads 1°F to 7°F colder than downtown Muscatine at bloom.

• Apples and crabs: Kindercrisp, Norda; Kerr and Trailman applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these); Dolgo crabapple
• Plums and cherries: Brookgold plum, Nanking Cherry, and Evan's Bali, good to at least −40°F to −45°F
• Berries: Honeyberry, Golden Currant, Montana Black Currant (we've never seen winter damage on it), Aronia Berry

Roots, soil and timing

Roots are the weak link: Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, under snow. On windswept upland and the Island's dry sand, mulch the roots and don't send the soil into winter bone dry, since dry soil means more root death. We taper water from mid-August in zone 4 and colder so trees harden off. Iowa State warns that wet soil invites Phytophthora root rot, so test drainage on the heavier ground (dig 2 feet, fill, let drain, refill: under 10 hours is well drained).

Fruit history here

Muscatine's fruit is the melon. By the 1880s melons were thriving in the sand of Starvation Flats, and Fruitland is named for the crop. In 1921 about 2,000 acres grew watermelons and 500 more muskmelons and cantaloupes, and Muscatine is still known as the Watermelon Capital of the World (Cordele, Georgia and Hope, Arkansas claim it too). Iowa State's Muscatine Island Research and Demonstration Farm, started in 1935, still tests fruit and vegetable varieties on that sand. Statewide, Iowa ranked second only to Michigan in apples before the 1940 Armistice Day storm, and apples are coming back: 498 Iowa farms grew 1,323 acres in 2022.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Muscatine, Iowa?

Downtown Muscatine plans for −30°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter of −13°F. Iowa State uses Oskaloosa, USDA zone 5b, as its southeast Iowa example; USDA's zones are based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for. The High Prairie plans for −26°F and the bottomland toward the Island −32°F, zone 3b.

What growing zone are Washington and Mount Pleasant, Iowa?

Washington plans for −26°F and Mount Pleasant −29°F, both MFTC zone 4a. Their long-record NOAA stations average −14°F to −15°F for the year's coldest night, about where USDA's zones 5a and 5b meet. New London plans for −25°F, zone 4b.

When is the last frost in Muscatine?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F on April 18 at the Muscatine station on the bottomland and April 15 at Muscatine 2N on the High Prairie. One spring in 10 it comes as late as May 4. Washington and Mount Pleasant run a day later, April 19.

Is it colder by the river in Muscatine?

On the bottomland, yes. NOAA's Muscatine station between downtown and Fruitland runs a median 3°F colder on the year's coldest night than Muscatine 2N on the upland, ran 8°F colder in the January 2009 cold snap, and gets about 9 fewer frost-free days. Right on the open river it's milder: the Illinois City Dam 16 station runs a median 3°F warmer than the Muscatine station.

Can you grow peaches in Muscatine and southeast Iowa?

Yes, in the right spot, though not a crop every year. Iowa State says southern Iowa gets a good peach crop 2 or 3 years in 5 and flower buds are often killed below −18°F. Siberian C (−35°F) clears every named place on this map, Contender (−30°F) fits downtown Muscatine and everything warmer, and at New London (−25°F) Blushingstar (−25°F) fits.

Do sweet cherries grow in southeast Iowa?

Yes. Iowa State lists Gold, BlackGold and WhiteGold for the southern two-thirds of the state, and at −35°F they and Lapins clear every town on this map. They bloom before apples and pears, so put them on a bench or slope with a warm spring reading, like Brighton, Columbus City or the High Prairie.

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.