Fruit Trees for Provo, Orem, Lehi, Santaquin and Utah Valley, Utah

Pyne Farms has grown fruit in Utah County since 1903, and the last time it lost its whole crop was 1972. In April 2026 bloom came weeks early, and a string of hard freezes took most of the Santaquin cherries and apples (reports run from about 90 percent to a total loss), then the Genola peaches. That's why this map of fruit trees for Provo, Orem, Lehi, Santaquin and Utah Valley gives spring frost as much weight as the winter low. It runs from Lehi and the Traverse Mountains south to Santaquin and Goshen, Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain on the west, and the lower parts of Provo and Spanish Fork canyons.

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

Each spot carries a 30-year planning low, the number our cold hardiness calculator works from: NOAA station records since the 1995-96 winter, fit for the bad winter and nudged for the terrain around you. It's conservative by design, a number to plan on rather than a record. With it come the MFTC zone (the planning low in half zones), the typical winter (the coldest night of an ordinary year, the basis for USDA's zones and the reason they run warmer than ours) and the spring frost reading, which compares the spot with downtown Provo on a calm, clear bloom night, in degrees warmer or colder.

The reference is downtown Provo: −7°F to plan for, MFTC 6a, and about 5°F in a typical winter. The median acre of growing ground plans for −11°F, and the middle half runs from −15°F to −9°F. The mild end is the north-end benches under Timpanogos, where Cedar Hills plans for −5°F. The cold end is the Cedar Valley floor at Eagle Mountain (−20°F, 4b) and, colder still, Spanish Fork Canyon, where Castilla plans for −26°F (4a).

Why the map looks the way it does

Every river in Utah Valley ends in Utah Lake, and the lake's one outlet is the Jordan River, leaving at the north end through the Jordan Narrows. Timpanogos stands about 7,000 ft over Lehi, Orem and Provo on the east side, the Lake Mountains and West Mountain close the west, and the land tilts west and north toward the lake at about 4,489 ft. American Fork Canyon, Provo Canyon, Rock Canyon, Hobble Creek, Spanish Fork Canyon and Peteetneet Creek all open onto the east side, and on a calm night their cold air slides down the fans toward the lake shore, Provo Bay and Goshen Bay.

Utah Lake is big but thin: about 95,000 acres, 10.5 ft deep on average. Winter days hang around freezing, so it skins over, breaks up and refreezes again and again, and a lake that shallow gives up its heat early. The NOAA station at the north end, Utah Lake Lehi (4,505 ft), has hit −28°F twice, in 1933 and 1989, and over 24 years its coldest night ran a median 11°F colder than the old Lower American Fork Powerhouse station, 538 ft higher. Its median last frost is May 2, two weeks after Provo's BYU station.

The east bench is the warm side of that pool. Pleasant Grove's upper station (Pleasant Grove Utah, 5,200 ft) has the mildest 30-year number of any station on the map, −3°F. In the February 1989 outbreak the floor and lake stations went deepest (Elberta −29°F, Utah Lake Lehi −28°F, the Orem Treatment Plant near lake level −27°F) while Provo BYU, Spanish Fork Power House and Alpine read −20°F and Pleasant Grove, at 4,690 ft, −17°F. USU Extension says the east bench historically held the Wasatch Front's best orchard sites, escaping the coldest midwinter lows and frosting less at bloom, unless a hedge or fence pools cold air behind it.

The Orem benches get something extra. High Country News, covering the 2026 freeze, called them some of Utah's best fruit land because Provo Canyon's wind brings warm air down onto them, they sit above the floor where cold air settles, and the soil is rich loam. Night canyon winds blow near every canyon mouth in Utah County; in one June 2003 spell they ran 20 to 30 mph all night and kept lows in Spanish Fork, Springville, Orem, Highland and Cedar Hills in the 70s°F and 80s°F. Our spring layer is built from terrain alone, so it reads a canyon mouth as the place cold air pours out: Olmsted, at the mouth of Provo Canyon, runs 7°F colder than downtown Provo. Both are true, on different nights. With the canyon calm its cold drains onto the fan; with its wind up the air gets stirred and frost stays off, the way Palisade, Colorado's canyon wind protects its peaches.

South of Springville the valley runs colder: Spanish Fork plans for −10°F, Payson −11°F, Santaquin −14°F, Goshen and Elberta −16°F. Elberta, out in the Goshen Valley at 4,690 ft, averages a yearly low of −9°F and ran a median 8°F colder than the Olmstead PH station (4,830 ft). We haven't found it explained in print. What fits is that the Goshen Valley floor is the closed-in far end of the lake basin, between West Mountain and the divide at Santaquin, first called Summit City for sitting on it. The south end warms slower in spring too: USU's fruit advisories counted 162 degree-days (base 50°F) at Santaquin from March 1 to April 18, 2007, against 251 at Provo. The deepest pools of all are the Cedar Valley floor and the canyon bottoms, and they get their own sections below.

Lehi, Alpine, Highland and Cedar Hills

Lehi, founded at Dry Creek, now takes in Traverse Mountain, Thanksgiving Point and the Silicon Slopes. The town point plans for −7°F (6a) on the floor 50 ft up; within 3 miles the floor runs −8°F and the benches −6°F. Westbury, on a bench 150 ft up, plans for −7°F but runs 5°F warmer than Provo in spring, and Nash, down on the river bottom, −8°F and 3°F colder. Alpine's town point plans for −8°F at 4,958 ft, colder than Lehi despite 400 ft more height and colder than its own benches (−6°F). Highland, named by Scottish settlers for its likeness to their highlands, plans for −7°F on a bench 130 ft up. Cedar Hills is the standout: −5°F (6a) on the hillside 240 ft up with a 7°F spring edge, the best pairing of any town we checked. All our peaches, apricots and sweet cherries clear these numbers; put Perfection apricot, Risingstar peach and Lapins cherry on the Cedar Hills and Westbury slopes and save Lehi's low ground for apples and bush fruit.

American Fork, Pleasant Grove and Lindon

American Fork plans for −6°F on a bench 100 ft up, and Pleasant Grove −6°F (6a) on the Timpanogos bench between Battle Creek and Grove Creek. Pleasant Grove is the better bloom ground, 4°F warmer than downtown Provo on a spring frost night, and the hillside north of town at the Valley Vista trails, 400 ft up, plans for −5°F (6b) with a 7°F spring edge. Pleasant Grove's upper NOAA station gets 178 frost-free days to the lower one's 169. Lindon plans for −7°F on a bench 110 ft up but reads 2°F colder than Provo in spring, and Hardy, on the floor toward the lake, −8°F. On these slopes, Superior plum with Toka beside it (Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior), Glowingstar peach and Skeena cherry all make sense.

Orem, the Provo Bench and Vineyard

Orem was the Provo Bench before it was a city: level ground north of Provo with rocky soil the pioneers counted good for fruit, dry until the Provo Bench Canal started carrying Provo River water from the canyon mouth in 1862. The town point plans for −7°F at 4,787 ft, 180 ft above the floor, and within 3 miles the floor runs −9°F and the benches −7°F. Orem Station, Snow and Curtis plan for −7°F; Orem Station and Snow read within a degree of downtown Provo in spring and Curtis 2°F warmer, and Lincoln, on the hillside 210 ft up, −8°F with a 5°F spring edge. Toward the canyon it changes: Caryhurst, now part of Provo, sits in a drainage and runs 3°F colder. Crandall's Fruit Farm still works 20 acres on the Orem benches, and the 2026 freeze took every peach.

Vineyard, named for its early grape vines and built mostly on the old Geneva Steel ground, plans for −9°F with its floor at −11°F, and runs 3°F colder than Provo in spring. Along the shore, go with apples like Liberty and Ashmead's Kernel, Danube tart cherry and the bush fruit, and keep pears up on the bench.

Provo and Springville

Provo, "The Garden City" for its old orchards and gardens, sits on the floor at 4,558 ft under Y Mountain and the mouth of Rock Canyon. Downtown plans for −7°F; within 3 miles the floor runs −9°F, the benches −6°F and the coldest tenth of the ground −10°F. Pleasant View and Edgemont, on the bench north of downtown, plan for −7°F and run 2°F warmer than downtown in spring, while Lakeview, toward the lake, plans for −9°F and runs 3°F colder. NOAA's BYU station has a −20°F record from February 6, 1989 and the earliest median last frost in the valley, April 18. Springville, the "Art City" along Hobble Creek, plans for −8°F (6a) and runs 1°F colder than Provo in spring. Mapleton, the old Union Bench across Hobble Creek, plans for −11°F (5b) and runs 3°F colder. In Provo and Springville everything we sell clears winter, Chicago Hardy Fig (−10°F) included; in Mapleton, give the fig a south wall and call it a trial.

Spanish Fork, Salem, Payson and Elk Ridge

Spanish Fork's settlers farmed the river bottoms, and that low ground still shows. The town point plans for −10°F (5b) on the floor and reads 2°F colder than Provo in spring, and Palmyra, Lake Shore and Benjamin, downstream toward Provo Bay, plan for −9°F to −10°F and run 4°F colder. East of town the foothills at Sutro and Moark Junction plan for −11°F and read 3°F to 4°F warmer.

Salem, first called Pond Town for the pond that's still its landmark, plans for −12°F (5b), and Payson, founded on Peteetneet Creek, −11°F on a bench 120 ft up over a floor at −13°F; both read about 1°F warmer than Provo in spring. Elk Ridge, at the foot of Mount Loafer (5,359 ft, 540 ft above the floor), and Woodland Hills next door plan colder in winter, −15°F (5a), but carry some of the best spring readings in the south end, 9°F and 7°F warmer than Provo, so the hillside trades a little winter warmth for a lot of bloom-night safety. This is tart cherry country. Utah grows the second-most tart cherries of any state, most of them in the foothills around Payson and Santaquin, and the Payson Fruit Growers co-op runs 20 to 30 million lb of Montmorency through its plant each July.

Santaquin, Genola and the Goshen Valley

Santaquin plans for −14°F (5b) on a bench 210 ft up and runs 3°F warmer than Provo in spring. The Santaquin Chlorinator station (5,160 ft) has a −22°F record from January 13, 1963, and later frost dates than any other station around the lake: a median last 32°F of May 12, and one spring in ten a 32°F frost after June 10. Keigley, on a bench 220 ft up northwest of town, plans for −11°F with an 8°F spring edge, the best numbers near Santaquin; Spring Lake, on the floor, −15°F and 2°F colder than Provo.

Genola, in the northeast corner of the Goshen Valley, plans for −13°F (5b) on a toe slope, with the floor around it at −16°F. Riley Orchards, Fowers Fruit Ranch and Pyne Farms all grow here, and in 2026 they threw everything at the freeze: wind machines, propane heaters, ground irrigation, watering at 6 pm to raise the dew point. Riley still lost about 95 percent. Farther out, Goshen plans for −16°F (5a), Lant −16°F and 4°F colder than Provo in spring, and Elberta −16°F.

Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain and Cedar Valley

Saratoga Springs runs along the northwest shore from Pelican Point to Camp Williams. It plans for −8°F (6a) on the floor 30 ft up and reads 2°F colder than Provo in spring, and Saratoga Resort, on the river bottom, −8°F and 3°F colder. Over Cedar Pass, Eagle Mountain is another world. The town point plans for −20°F (4b) and the floor around it −23°F, but the benches against the Lake Mountains run −11°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −7°F. Climate tables for the town show the same split: Fairfield, on the floor near City Center, averaged daily lows about 9°F colder than the Ranches, higher against the mountains, though over different years. Down on that floor, Fairfield also gets just 97 frost-free days and a median last frost of June 9.

On the Eagle Mountain floor the −20°F fruit (Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum, most of the nectarines) is only worth a try. Down there, plant Wolf River apple, Evan's Bali tart cherry and Honeyberry. Up on the benches nearly the whole list opens up.

Provo Canyon, Spanish Fork Canyon and the high country

In Provo Canyon, Springdell plans for −8°F and Canyon Glen −9°F, both 4°F to 5°F colder than Provo in spring, and farther up Riverbend plans for −18°F (5a). Deer Creek Dam, at the reservoir up the canyon, set −39°F in February 1989, runs a median 22°F colder than the Lower American Fork Powerhouse station and has a median last frost of May 31. Spanish Fork Canyon is worse: Castilla plans for −26°F (4a), with a typical winter of −12°F and a spring reading 9°F colder than Provo, the coldest of any named place we checked, and the old Thistle 3 N station recorded −33°F on January 22, 1937. There, stick with what has come through −30°F or colder and treat peaches (−25°F) as worth a try only. If you're up in the Heber Valley, the Park City, Heber and Wasatch Back map is yours.

Spring frost and bloom in Utah County

A USU fruit specialist and a local grower gave the valley's normal order as apricots around April 1, cherries and peaches around April 20, and apples at the end of April or early May, and they warned that at full bloom a few degrees can turn a 10 percent loss into a 90 percent loss.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians: Provo BYU's last 32°F comes April 18 (last 28°F April 4) and the Orem Treatment Plant's April 19, with 178 to 180 frost-free days. Spanish Fork Power House runs April 29, both Pleasant Grove stations April 30, Utah Lake Lehi May 2 (152 days), Alpine May 5 and Santaquin May 12 (144 days). With apricots out around April 1, even Provo's median date lands in the middle of bloom, and in the latest tenth of springs it's after May 11.

The spring layer shows where to stand. The warm readings are on the hillsides and benches: Elk Ridge 9°F warmer than downtown Provo, Keigley 8°F, Cedar Hills 7°F, Westbury and Lincoln 5°F. The cold ones are the canyon mouths and the lake floor: Olmsted 7°F colder, Gorder on the west side and Springdell 5°F to 6°F, Lake Shore, Benjamin and Palmyra 4°F. NC State's orchard guide notes that 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one.

2026 showed the limits. December through February averaged around 40°F, Utah's warmest winter since statewide records began in 1895, and a record spring heat wave pushed bloom three to four weeks early (sources differ; KUER said more than a month). The worst freeze came the evening of April 16 into April 17 (sources differ a little on the dates), and the governor's emergency order counted four April mornings that kept stations under 26°F for over eight hours. Santaquin's frost fans were judged useless, Allred Orchards closed for the year, and Payson Fruit Growers expected 10 to 15 percent of a normal tart cherry run. Vegetables and berries largely escaped, and bush fruit did fine in our own 2026 frost in Montana too (Red Lake and Montana Black currants set a good crop after about 22°F on their flower buds).

In 2008 Utah County growers lost 30 to 80 percent of tart cherry flower buds and up to 50 percent of sweet cherry buds, while apples and pears, still in tight bud, were largely spared. Give apricots, peaches and sweet cherries the warmest-reading slopes (an east slope is ideal, and a north slope holds them back), keep apples, haskap (its open flowers take 19°F) and bush fruit for the floor, and keep pears off the lowest spots. A wind machine gains a third to a half of an inversion on a calm night and nothing in a windy one; at home, a light frost cloth buys about 4°F and a heavy 1.5 oz one about 8°F.

What the weather records say

February 1989 set the records for most of the valley. Deer Creek Dam hit −39°F on February 7, the coldest in NOAA station records inside the map, and the same cold snap set or tied the records at Elberta, Utah Lake Lehi, the Orem Treatment Plant, Provo BYU, Spanish Fork Power House and Alpine. Pleasant Grove's −19°F record dates to January 26, 1949. Just off the map, Heber has −38°F (1899) and Fairfield, on the Cedar Valley floor, −36°F (1989).

Snow runs heaviest at the mountain-side towns: Alpine averages 74.4 inches, Spanish Fork 66.0 and Santaquin 55.1, against 41.4 in Pleasant Grove. Snow over the roots protects the tenderest part of a dormant tree, though Utah DEQ says snow-covered floors help lock in inversion cold. KUER's 2024 story on USDA's 2023 map put the Wasatch Front in zones 5 to 7; we couldn't confirm USDA's zones town by town. Ours run 6a and 6b from Provo north, 5a and 5b in the south end, 4b on the Cedar Valley floor and 4a in Spanish Fork Canyon, because USDA maps an average winter's low and we map the bad one.

What you can grow here

Most of the list clears winter in Utah Valley. Three quarters of the growing ground plans for −15°F or warmer, and everything we sell except the fig has come through −20°F or colder. The fig fits where the map reads −10°F or warmer, most of the valley from Springville north; the −20°F group (Bing, Santa Rosa, most of the nectarines) fits everywhere but the Cedar Valley floor and the canyons; and peaches clear everywhere but Spanish Fork Canyon. Past that it's bloom and site.

Cedar Hills to Provo and Springville (−5°F to −10°F)

On slopes that read warm in spring: Chinese Apricot (−30°F) and Montana Mango (−35°F) apricots, Blushingstar (−30°F) and Veteran (−30°F) peaches, Rainier (−30°F) and Black Gold (−35°F) cherries, Italian plum (−35°F) and Harrow Sweet pear (−30°F). On Provo and Orem town lots, the fig and Rhodes Seedling heartnut (−25°F). On the lake floor, Cox Orange Pippin apple (−35°F) and Somerset Seedless grape (−40°F). Check the pollination maps for partners that bloom at the same time.

Spanish Fork to Santaquin and Goshen (−10°F to −16°F)

Tart cherries first: Montmorency (−35°F), Meteor (−40°F) and Evan's Bali (−45°F). On the warm benches at Elk Ridge, Keigley and the Spanish Fork foothills: Westcot apricot (−45°F), Contender peach (−30°F), Gold cherry (−35°F) and Seckel pear (−35°F). On the floor around Benjamin, Lake Shore and Goshen: Airlie Red Flesh and Golden Russet apples, Captivator gooseberry and Jostaberry. The fig is worth a try only at the −10°F to −15°F end.

The Cedar Valley floor and the canyons (−17°F to −26°F)

Apples: Norland (−50°F) and Prairie Spy (−40°F), with Trailman applecrab (−55°F). Pear: Ure (−45°F), on a rise. Plum: Pipestone (−40°F). Cherry: Nanking Cherry (−50°F). Bush fruit: Montana Black Currant and Honeyberry (−50°F).

Soil, water and pests

The Provo Bench is rocky, the Orem benches rich loam, and the old lake floor white marl, the limey clay Lake Bonneville left. Utah's high-pH soils lock up iron (chlorosis), heavy spring watering makes it worse, and USU says salty soils need leaching. Water by drip; a hot, dry night canyon wind will blow sprinkler water off target. Check drainage before you plant: a 2-foot hole, filled, drained and filled again, should empty in under 10 hours. Codling moth is the most damaging apple insect, fire blight is worst in warm, wet springs, and powdery mildew is Utah's most common apple disease. Peaches get coryneum blight, and birds go after the cherries. Southwest winter injury is common, so paint trunks with white interior latex cut 50 percent with water, on a late-fall day above 50°F.

Fruit history here

A few pioneers settled the Provo Bench in 1861, cleared the sagebrush and hauled river water to their trees in barrels until the canal came. The fruit men recruited railroad builder Walter C. Orem to run a line out for their fruit and named the town for him, and in 1929 the Orem Line hauled 8,099 carloads of coal, gasoline, fruit and produce. Pleasant Grove had about 250 acres of strawberries when Strawberry Days began in 1922. Since then the fruit has moved south to the Payson and Santaquin foothills and, ahead of the subdivisions, to new orchards in Genola and Tintic. For Draper, Sandy and the rest of the valley north of the Traverse Mountains, see our Salt Lake City and Salt Lake Valley map.

Questions people ask

What is Provo's hardiness zone?

Downtown Provo plans for −7°F, MFTC zone 6a; the valley runs 6a and 6b from Provo north and 5a and 5b in the south end. KUER's story on USDA's 2023 map puts the Wasatch Front in zones 5 to 7. USDA builds its zones from an ordinary winter's coldest night, about 5°F in downtown Provo; we zone for the bad winter.

When is the last frost in Provo?

The BYU station's median last spring frost (1991 to 2020) is April 18, with the last 28°F around April 4, and in the latest tenth of springs it's after May 11. Utah Lake Lehi's median is May 2 and Santaquin's May 12.

Can you grow peaches in Provo?

Yes. Provo plans for −7°F, and our peaches are all rated −25°F or colder. The risk is bloom, around April 20 in a normal year and weeks earlier in 2026, so plant on a bench or slope with a warm spring reading, not on the floor toward the lake.

Is the east bench warmer in Utah County?

On calm nights, yes. Pleasant Grove's upper station at 5,200 ft has the mildest 30-year number in the valley, −3°F, and Utah Lake Lehi runs a median 11°F colder than the Lower American Fork Powerhouse station 538 ft higher. Higher isn't always warmer in winter, though: Elk Ridge plans for −15°F.

When do fruit trees bloom in Utah County?

Normally apricots open around April 1, cherries and peaches around April 20, and apples at the end of April or early May. In 2026 bloom came three to four weeks early, and some sources said more than a month.

Why did Utah County's fruit freeze in 2026?

The warmest winter in Utah's records and a record spring heat wave pushed bloom weeks early, then freezes through April, worst on April 16 and 17, kept stations under 26°F for over eight hours on four mornings. Payson Fruit Growers expected 10 to 15 percent of a normal tart cherry run.

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.