Fruit Trees for Pine City, Mora and Hinckley, Minnesota

On the morning of December 18, 1983, the NOAA station at Mora read −52°F. Hinckley, at about the same elevation, read −40°F, and Grantsburg, across the St. Croix in Wisconsin, −36°F. That's 16°F on one morning in country with hardly a hill in it, and it's why fruit trees for Pine City, Mora and Hinckley come down to where you plant as much as which town you're in.

This map covers Pine and Kanabec counties in East Central Minnesota, the north edges of Chisago and Isanti counties and a strip of Wisconsin: Pine City, Rock Creek and Rush City on the St. Croix side, Mora on the Snake, Hinckley to the north, and Braham, Dalbo and Stanchfield on the south edge. 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 at any spot is its 30-year planning low, the bad winter night we'd plan a tree around. It runs cautious, so treat it as a safe number to plan for, not a promise of how often that night 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. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Pine City on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −40°F and half of it falls between −39°F and −40°F; the coldest 5 percent plans for −42°F or colder, the warmest 5 percent −37°F or warmer. Pine City, the reference town, plans for −40°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −26°F). The cold end is the north: Cloverdale, east of Hinckley, at −42°F, Warman, north of Mora, at −41°F, and Hinckley at −40°F. The warm end is the corner around Rush City at −36°F (MFTC 3a).

Why the map looks the way it does

This is rolling moraine and sand plain tipping south and east toward the St. Croix. Most of it is what the DNR calls the Mille Lacs Uplands: till plains and drumlin fields left by the glacier's Superior lobe, with peatlands in the hollows between the drumlins and a young, undeveloped drainage network full of wetlands. The south edge around Braham, Stanchfield and Rush City is the north end of the Anoka Sand Plain, sandy outwash with kettle lakes and peat-filled tunnel valleys. From the highest named place on the map (Warman, 1,158 feet) to the lowest (Benson, 873 feet) is under 300 feet, and within 3 miles of every town but Rush City the map found no ground 100 to 700 feet above the floor at all.

So there's no thermal belt here in the mountain sense. Most of a cold pool is made right where it sits, as the ground loses heat to a clear sky, and a wide, flat, wet basin can pool as hard as a deep valley that drains. Peat and wet meadow are frost-prone, and on a still January night every bog between the drumlins and every river flat makes its own cold and keeps it, because there isn't much downhill for it to go. Snow adds to it (Mora averages 52 inches a year): it cuts the air off from the ground's heat, so the air over it runs colder while the roots under it stay far warmer.

Mora's extra cold comes in spells. On January 9, 1977, it read −46°F while Hinckley, 17 feet higher, read −29°F, but on January 19, 1994, Mora (−38°F) sat right with Hinckley, Cambridge and Grantsburg (−37°F to −39°F), and no pair of long-record stations here differs by 3°F or more in the median yearly low. That fits a cold pool: on the stillest, clearest mornings a spot where cold collects pulls away from its neighbors, and on a windy one, with arctic air still pouring in behind a front, everything reads about the same. The planning low folds both kinds of night together, so it puts Mora (−39°F) about where Pine City is.

The bigger swing runs south to north, and it comes from the stations as much as the terrain. The Rush City airport station's own 30-year number is −35°F, the Hinckley airport station's −40°F and the old Mora station's −40°F. Over their full records, Cambridge, just south on the sand plain, averages −27°F for the coldest night of the year, Mora −30°F and Hinckley −31°F, and the DNR gives the Anoka Sand Plain a growing season of 136 to 156 days to the Mille Lacs Uplands' 97 to 135. Our −36°F at Rush City is colder than anything its airport station has recorded (−30°F in 28 winters), and Hinckley's −40°F is colder than that airport station's coldest in 15 winters, −36°F in the winter of 2018 to 2019.

Water doesn't change much. Pokegama and Cross lakes are shallow widenings of the Snake, 25 and 30 feet at their deepest, Knife Lake (15 feet) and Fish Lake (8 feet) shallower yet, and a lake only shelters its shore while it's relatively free of ice; the Chisago Chain just south of the map averages ice-out on April 13 or 14. Where position really shows is the spring layer, which carries the fine terrain at full strength: the best rises, 50 to 80 feet above their floor, read 3°F to 6°F warmer than downtown Pine City at bloom, and the coldest draws and flats read 1°F to 3°F colder. NC State's fruit people figure 3°F to 4°F can be the difference between no crop and a full one, and a 1936 Michigan State bulletin found orchard ridges only 25 to 30 feet above the surrounding plain could be nearly as frost-free as high hills. In country this flat, 30 feet of rise is your thermal belt.

Pine City, Cross Lake and Pokegama Lake

Pine City grew up where the Snake, on its way from Pokegama Lake, runs into Cross Lake, and downtown sits on river bottom at 951 feet, 10 feet above its floor. It plans for −40°F, MFTC 3a, typical winter −26°F, and it's the reference town for the spring layer. Within 3 miles the floor runs a median −39°F, the warmest tenth of the growing ground −37°F and the coldest tenth −40°F, with no bench ground at all, so downtown sits on about the coldest ground around. River bottoms stay cold despite the river, and downtown and the riverbanks around it, from the voyageur statue on the Snake's north shore to Challeen Park's community garden on the south bank, are on that bottom.

A 1901 promotional booklet put the village on rolling ground with good drainage, and the rises are where that holds. Pine Terrace Mobile Home Park, 0.7 miles south of downtown and 50 feet above its floor, plans for −39°F and runs 4°F warmer than downtown at bloom. For the West Side, the south end by the Civic Center and the east side toward the Cross Lake dam, type in your address to see where you land between the warm and cold ends around town.

On the bottom, plant what has come through −40°F or colder: Haralson, Honeycrisp and Frostbite apples (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F), Chestnut applecrab (−50°F), Luscious pear (−40°F), Toka plum and Evan's Bali tart cherry (−45°F). On a rise like Pine Terrace, Superior plum (−35°F) is worth a try with snow held over the roots.

Mora, the Snake, the Knife and the Ann

Mora sits at 998 feet on the Snake, where the Knife River comes in just north of town and the Ann River just south. Downtown along Union Street plans for −39°F, MFTC 3a, typical winter −25°F, and runs 1°F warmer than Pine City at bloom. It's 30 feet above its floor, and the floor around it is colder (a median −40°F within 3 miles, the coldest tenth −41°F and the warmest −39°F), so the town center is already close to the best ground nearby. The old Mora station, with 110 years on file, holds the area's deepest reading, −52°F on December 18, 1983, and it went past its own −40°F planning number on February 2, 1996, at −43°F. The planning low isn't the record, and on the deepest mornings low ground here can beat it.

Around Mora, Brunswick, 6 miles south, sits on the floor at −39°F and runs 3°F colder than Pine City at bloom, the worst spring reading of any named place on the map. Warman, 12.6 miles north at 1,158 feet, plans for −41°F (MFTC 2b) out in the cold north end, but it sits 50 feet above its floor and runs 4°F warmer at bloom. The winter number says what lives; the spring number says what crops. Quamba, 6.5 miles east, plans for −40°F, and Sapsucker Farms, just outside it, grows more than 40 apple varieties organically, mostly for cider, with Zestar! and Chestnut crab in its August 2026 CSA.

For the river bottoms around Mora, lean on the −50°F trees: Wealthy apple, Centennial and Kerr applecrabs, Bolshaya pear, Brookred plum and Debbie's Gold apricot. Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F.

Hinckley, Brook Park and the north end

Hinckley sits at 1,033 feet where the forks of the Grindstone River meet. It plans for −40°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −25°F) and runs even with Pine City at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor runs a median −40°F, the coldest tenth −41°F and the warmest tenth −39°F.

The Grindstone's South Fork heads in a wetland complex in Kroschel Township, and Kroschel plans for −40°F and runs 1°F colder at bloom. Friesland, 5 miles north of Hinckley and 70 feet above its floor, plans for −38°F and runs 4°F warmer. Mission Creek, 3 miles south on a toe slope with a 6 percent grade, plans for −40°F but runs 2°F warmer, because cold slides on past it. Cloverdale, out east, is the coldest named place on the map at −42°F (MFTC 2b, typical winter −27°F). Brook Park, the old Pokegama, plans for −38°F, better than most ground around it.

The Great Hinckley Fire of September 1, 1894 became a firestorm after a temperature inversion trapped smoke near the ground, the same kind of warm lid that holds cold air on the floor on a still winter night. Today Two Fruit's Fruits on Dove Road keeps an orchard of more than 100 antique and heritage Minnesota apple trees, and Cider Flats on Two Rivers Road sells apples, cider and fall raspberries. Up here, plan on trees that have come through −45°F or colder: Haralson and Wolf River apples, Trailman applecrab (−60°F), Krasnobokaya pear and Brookgold plum (−50°F), Morden 604 apricot (−45°F), and Honeyberry and Montana Black Currant (−50°F).

Braham, Grasston and Henriette

Braham, the Homemade Pie Capital of Minnesota, sits at 958 feet on the Lower Stanchfield Branch, 12 miles north of Cambridge. It plans for −39°F, MFTC 3a, typical winter −25°F, and runs about even with Pine City at bloom. USDA puts Braham's ZIP in 4b, and our typical winter lands right on that line; the bad night runs 14°F colder. Within 3 miles the floor runs a median −39°F and the warmest tenth −37°F, so shop your lot. Braham Mobile Home Park, 0.6 miles from the center, plans for −38°F, while Andree, 2.5 miles west and only 10 feet above its floor, plans for −40°F.

North and east of Braham, Grasston (on a toe slope 20 feet above its floor) plans for −37°F and Greely (50 feet up) −38°F, and they run 1°F and 2°F warmer than Pine City at bloom; Grass Lake and Henriette plan for −38°F and run even. At −37°F to −39°F the picks are trees rated −40°F and colder: Snowsweet®, Cortland and Prairie Spy apples, Summercrisp pear, Alderman, La Crescent and Underwood plums with Toka as the pollenizer, and Meteor tart cherry. At Grasston and Greely, Lapins sweet cherry (−35°F) is worth a try.

Rush City, Rock Creek and the St. Croix side

Rush City is the warm corner. It sits at 920 feet along Rush Creek in Chisago County and plans for −36°F, MFTC 3a, typical winter −23°F, running 1°F warmer than Pine City at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor runs a median −36°F and the warmest tenth −35°F, and Rush Meadows Mobile Home Park plans for −37°F. That warmth rests mostly on the Rush City airport station, whose coldest night in an average winter runs −22°F, against −26°F at the old Mora station over roughly the same years. No single piece of terrain explains it, so read this corner as a station result first.

Rock Creek, 5 miles north, shows how much the small stuff matters. It plans for −38°F, but it sits in its creek's draw on a 5 percent slope and runs 2°F colder than Pine City at bloom; draws like that carry cold down at night. The warmest tenth of the ground within 3 miles plans for −35°F, so better ground is close by, up out of the draw.

Across the St. Croix in Wisconsin, Benson, 80 feet above its floor, plans for −37°F and runs 6°F warmer than Pine City at bloom, the best spring reading on the map. Just south of the map, the Wild River State Park station down in the St. Croix bottom gets only 124 frost-free days, so keep fruit up on the rises.

Rush City's −36°F opens up the most on the map. Gold and Lapins sweet cherries, Superior and Italian plums, Bartlett pear, Freedom apple, Montana Mango apricot and Siberian C peach (all −35°F) fall just 1°F short of it and are worth a try. Siberian C is the hardiest peach we think is out there, but it ripens very late, so give it your warmest, sunniest spot.

Dalbo, Day and Stanchfield

Dalbo, at 970 feet, plans for −39°F, MFTC 3a, typical winter −25°F, and runs about even with Pine City at bloom. Day, 3.6 miles north at 1,033 feet, sits 70 feet above its floor and plans for −37°F with a typical winter of −22°F, the mildest of any named place on the map. It runs 3°F warmer than Pine City at bloom and plans warmer than the warmest tenth of the ground within 3 miles. Stanchfield, on its river bottom, plans for −39°F and runs 1°F colder at bloom, and Stanchfield Corner, half a mile away, plans for −40°F (MFTC 2b).

Stanchfield and the south edge sit at the north end of the Anoka Sand Plain: excessively drained sand that dries out fast, with low, wet, frost-prone peat in the tunnel valleys and ice-block hollows. Take the sandy rises and plan on drip irrigation, the only kind we advise for fruit trees; UMN's 1991 apple and pear bulletin says to avoid very sandy soils, so take loamier ground where you've got a choice. Jakes Apple Shack, with a Stanchfield address, lists SweeTango, First Kiss, Chestnut crab and Zestar. Day's rise suits Westcot and Sungold apricots (−45°F and −40°F).

Spring frost and bloom in Pine and Kanabec counties

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F frost at Mora on May 10, the last 28°F on April 28 and the first fall 32°F around September 24, for 143 frost-free days; one spring in ten the last 32°F came as late as May 22. Cambridge, on the sand plain just south, gets its last 32°F on May 4 and 147 frost-free days. Grantsburg, across the St. Croix, runs latest: May 14, one spring in ten as late as May 31, and 141 frost-free days.

On a still, clear bloom night the rises (Benson, Friesland, Warman, Pine Terrace, Day) read 3°F to 6°F warmer than downtown Pine City, and the floors and draws (Brunswick, Rock Creek, Stanchfield, Kroschel) 1°F to 3°F colder. The University of Minnesota's fruit people say even 20 feet of elevation drop within an orchard can make a difference. On a windy night, with cold air coming in on a front, the rises lose most of that edge, but the still, clear night is the one that does the damage at bloom.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying near 28°F (Michigan State's numbers). Apples forgive a lot: only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and unless it's clustered fruit like cherries and grapes, most fruit can lose half its bloom with little effect. Haskap (our Honeyberry) takes 19°F wide open. Put apricots, plums and sweet cherries on your highest, best-drained ground and apples, pears and bush fruit lower. Don't plant stone fruit against the south side of a building (UMN Extension says it pushes bloom early).

Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two ahead of a forecast frost. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F (Alabama Extension's figures). And open the outlet: a hedge, fence line, road fill or strip of brush across the low side of an orchard backs cold air up into the trees just uphill of it.

What the weather records say

The deepest reading in NOAA station records here is Mora's −52°F on December 18, 1983. The old Grantsburg station read −51°F on February 16, 1936, and just north of the map the state climatologist has Willow River at −52°F on February 4, 1907. Cambridge's coldest is −42°F (January 23, 1935) and Hinckley's −41°F (January 30, 1951).

Of the outbreaks the planning low is built on, the worst came February 2, 1996, when Mora read −43°F, Grantsburg −42°F, Cambridge −41°F and Hinckley −35°F. A 1998 report on how Minnesota's apples came through the 1996 winter found the best survivors (Rescue, Dolgo, Chestnut and Centennial) in plots that saw −50°F to −55°F, while Sweet Sixteen was among the worst.

Since 1995 the old Mora station has averaged −26°F for a winter's coldest night and plans for −40°F, close to the 13°F gap NOAA station records show between the two at the median station. USDA's 2023 map puts Pine City, Mora, Hinckley and Rock Creek in zone 4a (−30°F to −25°F) and Rush City and Braham in 4b (−25°F to −20°F). USDA's zones are built on the average winter's coldest night, so they read a full zone or more warmer than our MFTC zones.

What you can grow here

Rush City and the warm southeast corner, −36°F to −37°F. Everything below, and the −35°F trees are worth a try: Lapins and Gold sweet cherries, Superior and Italian plums, Bartlett and Seckel pears, Freedom and Macoun apples, Montana Mango and Zard apricots, Siberian C peach and Danube tart cherry.

The rises and the south half, −37°F to −38°F (Benson, Day, Rock Creek, Grasston, Brook Park, Friesland). Snowsweet®, Zestar!®, Cortland and Prairie Spy apples; Luscious, Summercrisp and Cold Snap® pears; Alderman, La Crescent, Pipestone and Underwood plums with Toka; Meteor and Evan's Bali tart cherries; Westcot and Sungold apricots highest on the lot; Red Lake currant and Boyne raspberry. Superior and Lapins (−35°F) are worth a try on the warm end.

Pine City, Mora, Braham and the floors, −39°F to −40°F (also Dalbo, Brunswick, Stanchfield, Quamba, Pine Terrace). Lean on the −45°F and colder trees: Haralson, Frostbite and Honeycrisp apples, Chestnut and Kerr applecrabs, Vekovaya and Bolshaya pears, Toka and Brookred plums, Evan's Bali tart cherry, Westcot and Morden 604 apricots, Honeyberry and Montana Black Currant. Zestar!®, Luscious, Black Ice and Meteor (−40°F) fit right at the number.

Hinckley and the cold north end, −40°F to −42°F (Hinckley, Mission Creek, Stanchfield Corner, Warman, Cloverdale). Trees that have come through −45°F or colder: Wealthy, Mantet and September Ruby apples, Kerr, Trailman, Centennial and Rescue applecrabs, Bolshaya and Krasnobokaya pears, Brookred, Brookgold and Ptitsin #5 plums, Romeo dwarf cherry, Debbie's Gold apricot, Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant and Valiant grape. If you only plant one tree up here, make it Kerr or Trailman.

Roots are the weak link, and snow keeps them alive: 4 to 10 inches insulates soil well, and at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no rootstock damage. On the moraine, dense till 20 to 40 inches down means poor drainage, shallow roots and windthrow, so test drainage before you plant (dig 2 feet, fill it, let it drain, fill it again; under 10 hours is well drained) and stay out of the peat hollows. The upland soils run acid, and UMN wants pH 6 to 7.

Hardening off matters with a first fall frost around September 24: UMN says no late cultivation, heavy late nitrogen or excess late watering, and in zone 4 and colder we taper water from mid-August. Almost all of our own young Bing cherries died when Missoula dropped to −7°F almost overnight on October 25, 2020, before they'd gone dormant. Wrap or whitewash trunks on the south and southwest sides against sunscald and guard them from voles and rabbits; deer, fire blight, apple scab, codling moth, plum curculio and black knot round out the list. The hybrid plums want a pollenizer (UMN recommends Toka), and our pollination maps show what pairs with what. The cold hardiness calculator sorts everything we sell by the coldest temperature it has come through. If you're south in Cambridge or North Branch, the Cambridge and North Branch map covers you, and farther down the river the St. Croix Valley map takes over.

Fruit history here

The orchard story here is mostly a new one. A 1901 promotional booklet for Pine City listed small fruits among the crops Pine County suited and said nothing about apples or orchards. After the 1894 fire, Hinckley-area farms grew potatoes, fruit and vegetables, and most of that farming is gone now. Sapsucker Farms near Quamba planted its orchard after 2001, went certified organic in 2008 and opened a cider barn in 2019. Its barrel-aged cider took a 2016 gold described as one of the first golds for a Minnesota cider.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Pine City, MN?

USDA's 2023 map puts Pine City's ZIP in zone 4a (−30°F to −25°F), based on an average winter. On the bad night we plan for, downtown Pine City is −40°F, MFTC zone 3a, with a typical winter of −26°F. Rises like Pine Terrace on the south side plan for −39°F.

What hardiness zone are Mora and Hinckley?

USDA's 2023 map puts both in zone 4a. On our map Mora plans for −39°F, MFTC 3a, and Hinckley for −40°F, also MFTC 3a, both with a typical winter around −25°F.

When is the last frost in Mora, MN?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F frost at Mora on May 10, and one spring in ten it came as late as May 22. The first fall 32°F comes around September 24 to 30, for 142 to 143 frost-free days.

What's the coldest it's ever been in Mora?

−52°F on December 18, 1983, at the NOAA Mora station, 11°F to 16°F colder than Cambridge, Hinckley and Grantsburg read that morning. Since 1995 its coldest is −43°F, on February 2, 1996.

What fruit trees grow in Pine City and Pine County?

Plan for about −40°F on most ground and pick trees that have come through it, like Haralson, Honeycrisp and Zestar!® apples, Chestnut applecrab, Luscious pear, Toka plum and Evan's Bali tart cherry.

Can you grow peaches or sweet cherries around Rush City and Pine City?

Around Rush City, they're worth a try: it plans for −36°F, and Siberian C peach and Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (all −35°F) fall just 1°F short of it. At Pine City's −40°F they're 5°F short, so stick with tart cherries like Evan's Bali and Meteor.

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.