Fruit Trees for Pittsfield, Great Barrington and the Berkshires, Massachusetts

On May 18, 2023, a clear, calm night took Berkshire County into the mid-20s°F with the apples in bloom or just past it. Bartlett's Orchard in Richmond lost 75 percent or more of its crop and called off pick-your-own for the fall; the few apples left hung on its higher ground. That's the first thing to know about fruit trees for Pittsfield, Great Barrington and the Berkshires: a hundred feet or two above the valley floor matters more than almost anything else.

This map covers Berkshire County from the Egremonts and Great Barrington north to Williamstown and North Adams, the hilltowns east to Florida, Peru, Becket and Otis, and the New York side of the Taconics from Canaan up to Petersburgh. 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 the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, and the typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's map is built on. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than Pittsfield on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown Pittsfield plans for −22°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −9°F. The middle of the growing ground plans for −22°F too, and half of it falls between −24°F and −21°F. The warm end is benches and slopes like Victory Hill in Pittsfield and Mahkeenac Heights above Stockbridge Bowl (−20°F). The cold end is the high floor between Lanesborough and Cheshire, New Ashford (−26°F) and the New York valleys, where Berlin plans for −27°F. The spring layer spreads far wider, from 11°F colder than Pittsfield at Housatonic village to 10°F warmer on Monument Mountain's slopes. Winter is close to the same wherever you'd plant here. Bloom night isn't.

Why the map looks the way it does

Two rivers drain this country in opposite directions. The Housatonic's East and West Branches meet in Pittsfield at 959 feet, and the river runs south past Lenox Dale, Lee and Stockbridge, about 250 feet lower by Great Barrington. The Hoosic leaves Cheshire Reservoir at about 970 feet and runs north and west through Adams and North Adams, about 330 feet lower by Williamstown. Mount Greylock, 3,489 feet, stands about 2,000 feet over the Hoosic Valley, with the Taconics along the New York line and the Hoosac Range and the Berkshire plateau to the east. On a clear, calm night cold air slides off all of it and settles in the valleys, each one its own little airshed.

The coldest winter ground isn't the lowest. Between Lanesborough and Cheshire the Hudson and Housatonic divide crosses the valley floor itself (Town Brook drains south to Pontoosuc Lake, the Hoosic north from Cheshire Reservoir), so the floor has a weak outlet either way. Most of a cold pool's chill is made right where it sits, as the ground radiates to a clear sky, and a wide floor that can't drain hangs on to it. The old Lanesboro station, at 1,236 feet, ties for the coldest reading on file inside the map, −31°F on January 27, 1994, and its 30-year number, −26°F, is the coldest of any station here. The floor around Lanesborough plans for −26°F, and so does New Ashford, on the floor west of Greylock.

The station records show the pooling plainly. The old Stockbridge station (860 feet) ran a median 6°F colder on the year's coldest night than the old Pittsfield station (1,040 feet), and 3°F colder than the Pittsfield airport (1,152 feet) over 33 years. Williamstown (711 feet) ran 3°F colder than old Pittsfield. On January 27, 1994 it was −31°F at Lanesboro, −30°F at Copake down at 550 feet on the New York side and −27°F at Great Barrington, while Cummington Hill, 1,610 feet up in the hilltowns just east of the map, read −5°F. That's 26°F of difference, and the warm station was 374 feet higher.

Above the pools sits the thermal belt, the band of slope that stays mildest on still nights. Within 3 miles of nearly every town here, the benches 100 to 700 feet up plan for 2°F to 4°F warmer than the floor, about 3°F in most places: −21°F against −25°F around Lenox and Lee, −22°F against −25°F around Otis and Stephentown. Height above your own floor beats height above the sea. Peru, at 2,065 feet and 440 feet over its floor, plans for −21°F, while the Washington river bottom, about 700 feet lower, plans for −25°F. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaged 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet up, and on this map's spring layer the gaps run that big and bigger.

That's a calm-night pattern. On February 14, 2016, five stations from Copake to Worthington all read within 3°F of each other, and the two highest, the Pittsfield airport and Worthington, were the coldest at −19°F. When the pattern flattens like that, as it does on windy or cloudy nights, height buys you nothing.

Lakes and towns do less than you'd think. Onota, Pontoosuc and Stockbridge Bowl are all under 620 acres and all freeze, and a lake only shelters its shore while it's open water. Downtown Pittsfield plans for −22°F against −24°F on the floor within 3 miles, partly from sitting 50 feet up and partly from the city itself (towns hold heat on still nights, and the map credits built-up ground with up to 2.5°F). Wet bottoms run cold: Tyringham, on the floor of the marshy Hop Brook valley, plans for −25°F. Snow is on your side. Pittsfield averages 73 inches a year, and snow over the roots is the best insulation a tree gets.

The spring layer is the same drainage at full strength. Berkshire Community College's weather blog gives the local rule: frost is most likely in wind-protected valleys, especially valleys up in the high country, because cold, dense air drains downslope into the low spots. NC State's fruit people note that 3°F to 4°F can be the difference between no crop and a full one, and here spots a couple of miles apart can differ by 15°F or more on a bloom night.

Pittsfield, Pontoosuc and the west side

Pittsfield sits where the Housatonic's two branches meet, between the Berkshire Hills and the Taconics. Downtown, on a toe slope 50 feet above the floor, plans for −22°F, zone 4b; within 3 miles the benches plan for −21°F and the floor −24°F. Victory Hill, on a bench 240 feet up, is the warm spot: −20°F, MFTC zone 5a, typical winter −6°F, and 7°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom. Around Pontoosuc Lake, Lakeview Terrace and Pontoosuc, 80 to 120 feet up, plan for −22°F and read 2°F to 3°F warmer at bloom, while Pontoosuc Gardens, on the flat, plans for −24°F and reads 4°F colder. The low ground toward Dalton runs colder (Coltsville −25°F, Lakewood and Adams Junction −24°F). On the west side, West Pittsfield and Stearnsville (−23°F and −24°F) sit in draws that carry cold down off the hills to the west, and both read about 5°F colder at bloom, as does Barkerville (−24°F).

Victory Hill and the downtown lots can carry Blushingstar (−25°F) and Contender (−30°F) peaches, Rainier (−30°F) and Lapins (−35°F) sweet cherries and Stanley (−30°F) plums. Bing (−20°F) fits Victory Hill and is worth a try against a south wall downtown. In the draws and toward Dalton, stick with kinds rated −30°F or colder: Honeycrisp, Macoun and Liberty apples and D'Anjou pears.

Lenox, Lenox Dale and Stockbridge Bowl

Lenox village sits on a bench at 1,251 feet, 280 feet above the Housatonic, and plans for −21°F with a typical winter of −7°F. At bloom it reads 8°F warmer than Pittsfield. Lenox Dale, the old Lenox Furnace iron village down on the river, plans for −25°F and reads 9°F colder. That's 17°F at bloom between two spots less than 3 miles apart. On Stockbridge Bowl, Mahkeenac Heights, on a 13 percent slope 180 feet up, plans for −20°F and reads 8°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom, while Mahkeenac Terrace, near the water, plans for −24°F. The Bowl freezes every winter, so it's height doing the work, not the lake.

The village and the Heights are the best stone-fruit ground in mid-county. Harlayne and Tomcot apricots (−30°F), Stella sweet cherries (−30°F) and Italian plums (−35°F) all clear −21°F with room to spare. In Lenox Dale, plant Wolf River apples (−45°F), Summercrisp pears (−40°F) and Honeyberry (−50°F), the haskap, whose open flowers take 19°F.

Lee, Stockbridge and Tyringham

Below Lenox Dale the Housatonic runs through Lee, then through the middle of Stockbridge village, in the heart of the Upper Housatonic Valley. Lee, on the river bottom at 911 feet, plans for −24°F, typical winter −11°F, and reads 5°F colder than Pittsfield at bloom; within 3 miles the floor plans for −25°F and the benches −21°F. Leisure Lee, 430 feet up the hillside, plans for −22°F and reads 8°F warmer. Stockbridge village, on the floor at 838 feet and hemmed in by Monument Mountain, Beartown Mountain and the hills around the Bowl, plans for −24°F and reads 4°F colder at bloom. Its old NOAA station went to −29°F on January 19, 1938 and again on January 18, 1957. Monument Mountain's slopes, 210 feet above the floor, plan for −21°F and read 10°F warmer. Tyringham, on the Hop Brook floor, plans for −25°F and reads 9°F colder.

On these floors, plant for −25°F and a cold bloom night: Northern Spy (−30°F) and Macoun (−35°F) apples, Bartlett and Seckel pears (−35°F), Meteor tart cherries (−40°F), and Superior plums (−35°F) with Toka (−45°F) as the pollenizer (our pollination maps show the pairings). Save the apricots and peaches for the hillsides.

Richmond, West Stockbridge and the Yokun Ridge orchards

The Yokun Ridge runs about 9 miles from the Turnpike to southern Pittsfield, taking in Lenox Mountain and West Stockbridge Mountain, and its Richmond side is orchard country. Bartlett's farms 52 acres on Lenox Mountain's slopes, a slope site for a reason, and Hilltop Orchards, about 200 acres on Canaan Road, has grown apples since the early 1900s. Richmond village, on a hillside 80 feet up, plans for −24°F and runs about 1°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom; around Richmond Furnace the floor within 3 miles plans for −25°F and the benches −21°F. West Stockbridge shows the split hardest. The village, on the floor at 898 feet, plans for −24°F and reads 11°F colder than Pittsfield at bloom, while West Stockbridge Center, on a bench 240 feet up, plans for −21°F and reads 4°F warmer.

The slopes suit the apples Bartlett's sells, Macoun (−35°F) and Liberty (−30°F), plus Cortland (−40°F) and, for cider, Golden Russet (−40°F), and West Stockbridge Center has room for Contender peaches. On the village floor, keep to apples on your highest corner.

Great Barrington, Housatonic and the Egremonts

South Berkshire is the low end. Great Barrington sits at 704 feet where the Williams and Green rivers come into the Housatonic. The map gives it a mild winter, −22°F with a typical winter of −8°F and benches at −20°F within 3 miles, but the town is floor ground and reads 4°F colder than Pittsfield at bloom. Housatonic village, up the river, plans for −23°F and reads 11°F colder at bloom, and Brookside, the lowest named spot around Great Barrington, 10°F colder. The Egremonts plan for −22°F and read 4°F to 6°F colder, and the old South Egremont station hit −31°F on January 22, 1961. The hillsides do better: Berkshire Heights, on an 11 percent slope, plans for −21°F, and Alford −22°F and 2°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom.

Great Barrington's Main Street was once lined with pear trees, and D'Anjou (−30°F) and Bartlett (−35°F) fit anywhere in town. On the slopes, try Glohaven and Blushingstar peaches (−25°F), Hardired nectarines (−25°F) and Baldwin (−25°F), the old New England apple that Windy Hill Farm, a mile south of Stockbridge, still grows.

Lanesborough, Cheshire, Adams and Dalton

North of Pittsfield the valley climbs to the divide. Lanesborough's center, on a hillside 110 feet up, plans for −23°F, but the floor within 3 miles plans for −26°F, and Berkshire Village on Route 8 plans for −25°F and reads 6°F colder than Pittsfield at bloom. Cheshire, by the reservoir at the head of the Hoosic, plans for −25°F, right at the 4a line, with its floor at −26°F. Dalton, east of Pittsfield and 70 feet above its floor, plans for −24°F. Adams, on the Hoosic at 801 feet with Greylock's summit inside the town line, plans for −23°F and reads 7°F colder than Pittsfield at bloom. Get off the floor and that changes: Bowens Corners, 220 feet up east of town, plans for −21°F and reads 9°F warmer. Jaeschke's Orchard works 55 acres on Greylock's east slopes above the Hoosac Valley, with peaches, plums and grapes beside its heirloom apples, and Lakeview Orchard in Lanesborough has grown 1,000 dwarf trees since 1996.

On the Lanesborough and Cheshire floor, plant for −26°F: Honeycrisp, Haralson and Wolf River (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F), Ure and Luscious pears (−40°F), Black Ice and Mount Royal plums (−40°F) and Evan's Bali tart cherries (−45°F). Jaeschke's heirlooms Stayman Winesap (−30°F) and Baldwin (−25°F) belong on the warm slopes above Adams, along with any peaches.

Williamstown, North Adams and the lower Hoosic

The Hoosic leaves North Berkshire through the lowest ground on the map. North Adams sits at 704 feet under the Hoosac Range's west face, with Mount Williams rising about 2,250 feet over the city. The center plans for −23°F, typical winter −9°F, and reads 3°F colder than Pittsfield at bloom. The old mill villages strung west along the river run colder (Greylock and the Blackinton Historic District −24°F, the district 8°F colder at bloom), and the hill neighborhoods warmer: the Church Street-Cady Hill district plans for −22°F and reads 2°F warmer, and Houghtonville, 200 feet up, plans for −22°F and reads 7°F warmer. Williamstown, near where the Green River meets the Hoosic, plans for −23°F on a toe slope 80 feet up and reads 4°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom, but Mill Village on the river plans for −25°F, and Sweets Corner reads 10°F colder at bloom.

Town lots and the hill neighborhoods can carry Contender peaches, Lapins cherries and Stanley plums; the bottoms want apples, pears and bush fruit like Red Lake currants (−40°F). If you're over the line in Pownal or Bennington, our Bennington and Battenkill map covers you.

The hilltowns and the New York side

Up on the Berkshire plateau, height above your own floor is everything. Peru (440 feet above its floor) and Middlefield (360 feet up) plan for −21°F and read 8°F to 9°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom, and Becket Center, 300 feet up, plans for −22°F and reads 10°F warmer. The villages down in the bottoms (Becket, Hinsdale, Washington, and Otis on its river bottom) all plan for −25°F. If you're over the hill toward Northampton, our Pioneer Valley map covers you.

Along the New York line the Taconics wall off a string of valleys that are some of the coldest winter ground here. Berlin, on the floor west of Berlin Mountain, plans for −27°F with a typical winter of −13°F, Stephentown −26°F, and New Lebanon, Canaan and Petersburgh −25°F. Stephentown Center, 180 feet up, plans for −23°F and reads 6°F warmer than Pittsfield at bloom.

Plant those valleys and the hilltown bottoms for −27°F: Kerr and Chestnut applecrabs (−50°F), Haralson and Wolf River apples, Romeo dwarf cherries (−50°F), Honeyberry and Montana Black Currant (−50°F). The high benches of Peru, Middlefield and Becket Center can take the Lenox list.

Spring frost and bloom in the Berkshires

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the Pittsfield airport's median last 32°F frost on May 9 and its last 28°F on April 25, with a 156-day frost-free season. Lenox Dale, about 150 feet lower on the river, runs later (last 32°F May 13, last 28°F April 30, 150 days), the North Adams airport gets its last 32°F on May 14 and 148 days, and Worthington, in the hilltowns just east, 143 days. One spring in ten the last 32°F comes May 19 or later at the Pittsfield airport and May 22 or later at North Adams. The highest valley station has the longest season.

The May 18, 2023 freeze was a textbook radiation frost, clear and calm after an early bloom. Bartlett's lost 75 percent or more, Windy Hill Farm about the same, and just east of the map Headwater Cider in Hawley logged 27°F for about six hours and lost about half its crop. Statewide, UMass Extension put the apple loss at 20 percent, with some orchards from the Pioneer Valley west at zero.

Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F (Michigan State's figures), but only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, so a freeze that kills most of the bloom doesn't always take the whole crop. Haskap flowers take 19°F wide open. So site comes first. Apricots, peaches and sweet cherries go where the spring layer reads warmer than Pittsfield, and floors that read 5°F or more colder get apples, pears, haskap, currants and gooseberries. Through bloom, mow short, don't till, water a day or two before a frost night, and open up any hedge or tree line damming cold air at the bottom of your slope. All of that works on still nights; in a windy freeze the warm benches lose their edge.

What the weather records say

Pittsfield's official record low is −26°F, from February 15, 1943, in the cold wave that took Adams to −29°F. North Adams' is −20°F (January 24, 2011 and February 6, 2015). The coldest readings on file inside the map: Lanesboro and South Egremont −31°F, Adams and Stockbridge −29°F, Great Barrington −27°F. The winter of 1933-34 brought −23°F to Pittsfield twice and −32°F to Spencertown, and by a 1947 account Maine lost some two-thirds of its Baldwins that winter.

Since 1995 the coldest the Pittsfield airport has recorded is −19°F (February 14, 2016) and the North Adams airport −20°F (January 24, 2011), so their planning lows, −22°F and −24°F, are colder than anything either has seen in that time. Pittsfield gets 0°F or colder about 13 times a year. One zone list puts Pittsfield in USDA zone 5b on the 2023 map. USDA's map is built on the average winter's coldest night, so it reads warmer than our MFTC zones, which are built on the bad night we plan for: 4b for Pittsfield, and 4a or 4b across nearly all of this corner of Western Mass.

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.

Benches, hillsides and town lots, −22°F or warmer (Victory Hill, downtown Pittsfield, Lenox village, Mahkeenac Heights, Bowens Corners, Peru, Becket Center): Blushingstar, Contender and Siberian C (−35°F) peaches, Hardired nectarines, Harlayne and Tomcot apricots, Rainier, Stella and Lapins sweet cherries, Stanley and Italian plums, D'Anjou and Seckel pears, and Baldwin, Cox Orange Pippin (−30°F) and Stayman Winesap apples. Bing (−20°F) is worth a try on the warmest of it. Great Barrington and the Egremonts make this number but read colder at bloom, so their stone fruit goes on the slopes.

The valley floors, −23°F to −25°F (Lee, Stockbridge, Lenox Dale, Richmond, West Stockbridge, Housatonic, Adams, Dalton, North Adams, Williamstown, Otis, Canaan): Honeycrisp, Macoun, Liberty, Northern Spy and Golden Russet apples, Bartlett and Summercrisp pears, Superior and Toka plums, Meteor and Montmorency (−30°F) tart cherries, Marquette grapes (−35°F), Honeyberry, Red Lake currants and Boyne raspberries (−40°F).

The cold valleys, −25°F to −27°F (the Lanesborough and Cheshire floor, New Ashford, Tyringham, Washington, Berlin, Stephentown, New Lebanon): Kerr and Chestnut applecrabs, Haralson, Wolf River, Cortland and Zestar!® apples, Ure and Luscious pears, Black Ice and Mount Royal plums, Evan's Bali and Romeo cherries, and Montana Black Currant. Siberian C should live here, but on floors 5°F to 9°F colder at bloom it won't give you many peaches.

Plant on a slope, but not on a windswept hilltop and not down in the bottom. An east-facing slope warms quickly on a frosty spring morning, and a north slope holds apricots and plums back. Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade, and fruit trees need at least 6 hours of direct sun (8 to 10 is better). Snow over the roots is your friend; the danger is a thaw that strips it right before an arctic night, so mulch, keep the soil moist going into winter, and don't push trees late with nitrogen or heavy watering. Berkshire growers name hail and late spring frost as their biggest problems.

Fruit history in the Berkshires

Settlers here grew apples mostly for hard cider and vinegar, and they learned by trial which kinds suited their ground. The Shakers at Hancock, on the Pittsfield line, farmed about 3,000 acres by the 1830s, and a Hancock recipe for apple butter cooked in boiled cider still survives. Jaeschke's in Adams has been an orchard since 1881, and grafts from its first trees still bear apples nobody can name. Today Berkshire orchards grow more than 60 apple varieties.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Pittsfield, MA?

Downtown Pittsfield plans for −22°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −9°F. One zone list puts Pittsfield in USDA zone 5b on the 2023 map. USDA's zone is based on an average winter's coldest night; ours is built on the bad night we plan for. Victory Hill, 240 feet above the floor, plans for −20°F, zone 5a.

When is the last frost in Pittsfield, MA?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the Pittsfield airport's median last 32°F frost on May 9 and its last 28°F on April 25. One year in ten the last 32°F comes May 19 or later. Lower stations run later: May 13 at Lenox Dale and May 14 at the North Adams airport.

What fruit trees grow in the Berkshires?

Apples first. Berkshire orchards grow more than 60 varieties, and anything rated −30°F or colder, from Honeycrisp and Macoun to Northern Spy and Liberty, fits nearly the whole county. Pears, plums, tart cherries and bush fruit like haskap and currants fit everywhere. Peaches, apricots and sweet cherries need the benches and hillsides that read warm at bloom.

Can you grow peaches in the Berkshires?

Yes, on the right ground. Blushingstar (−25°F), Contender (−30°F) and Siberian C (−35°F) clear the −20°F to −25°F most of the county plans for. The trouble is bloom and late winter: a warm spell and then a drop well below zero in February 2023 killed most of the state's peach crop. Plant them high, like Lenox village or Victory Hill, never on a valley floor.

Why is Stockbridge colder than Pittsfield?

Stockbridge sits on the valley floor, hemmed in by Monument Mountain, Beartown Mountain and the hills around Stockbridge Bowl, where cold air collects on calm nights. NOAA station records show the old Stockbridge station ran a median 6°F colder than the old Pittsfield station on the year's coldest night, and 3°F colder than the Pittsfield airport. Stockbridge village plans for −24°F against −22°F in downtown Pittsfield.

Where are the frost pockets in the Berkshires?

On a still spring night the worst named spots on the map are Housatonic village and West Stockbridge, 11°F colder than Pittsfield, then Brookside near Great Barrington, Sweets Corner near Williamstown, Lenox Dale and Tyringham, 9°F to 10°F colder. For winter cold, the New York valleys (Berlin −27°F, Stephentown −26°F), New Ashford and the Lanesborough floor (−26°F) are the coldest ground.

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.