Fruit Trees for Sioux City, South Sioux City and North Sioux City, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota

On January 2, 2018, the Sioux City airport station read −28°F, and on February 16, 2021 it read −28°F again. That's the number our map plans for downtown Sioux City. Climb about 160 ft into Morningside and the map plans for −26°F and runs 7°F warmer on a still bloom night; drop to the mouth of the Big Sioux and it runs 7°F colder. Picking fruit trees for Sioux City, South Sioux City and North Sioux City comes down to where your yard sits among the bluffs, the creek bottoms and the Missouri floodplain.

The map covers the three-state core of Siouxland: Sioux City, Sergeant Bluff, Salix, Lawton, Bronson and Hinton in Iowa; South Sioux City, Dakota City, Homer, Jackson and Hubbard in Dakota County, Nebraska; and North Sioux City, Dakota Dunes, McCook Lake and Jefferson in Union County, South Dakota. 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 same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, built from NOAA station records since the 1995-96 winter and adjusted for the lay of the land. It's a safe number to plan on, not the record. You also get the MFTC zone (that number in half zones), the typical winter (an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's zones are built on, which is why theirs read warmer) and a spring layer: how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Sioux City on a still, clear night at bloom.

Downtown, the reference, plans for −28°F (MFTC zone 4a) with a typical winter of −16°F. The middle of the growing ground plans for −29°F, and nine tenths of it falls between −31°F and −26°F. The warm end is the hills, with Morningside at −26°F the warmest named place on the map. The cold end is the Floyd valley and the open upland east of the bluffs: Leeds and Lawton at −30°F, just on the 3b side, Dodds at −31°F, and the coldest tenth of the bottomland around Hinton and Jefferson at −31°F. The spring layer spreads wider: among the places we name, it runs from 7°F colder than downtown at the mouth of the Big Sioux to 10°F warmer at Yeomans, in the hills north of town.

Why the map looks the way it does

Three rivers meet here at the north end of the Loess Hills. The Big Sioux comes in from the north, and the Floyd joins the Missouri at 1,079 ft, about the lowest ground on the map. The floodplain they built runs about 1,080 to 1,110 ft, flat as a table; South Sioux City has less than 20 ft of relief in the whole town. On the Iowa side the bluffs climb right out of it, to 1,268 ft at Morningside, 1,361 ft at Yeomans and 1,391 ft at Stone State Park, close to 290 ft above the bottoms.

On a clear, calm night the ground loses its heat to the sky, the air touching it chills and gets heavy, and it slides downhill, down Perry Creek, Bacon Creek, ravines like South Ravine and the Floyd valley onto the bottoms. Most of the floodplain's cold is made right where it sits, though. Ground that flat and wide has nowhere to send it, and a wide, shallow basin can pool as hard as a deep valley. The floor within 3 miles of downtown plans for −29°F, and the coldest tenth of the ground there −30°F.

The warm ground is the thermal belt, the slopes and benches above the pool and below the windswept crests. Within 3 miles of downtown they plan for a median −26°F, 3°F warmer than the floor, and on a still bloom night Morningside (170 ft above its floor) reads 7°F warmer than downtown, Yeomans 10°F and Brookdale 4°F. Cold air doesn't stop on those slopes; it drains past and out below. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaged 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 ft higher, about the scale of these bluffs.

Yeomans and Brookdale still plan for −28°F in winter, no better than downtown. On the worst winter nights arctic air often pours in on a wind, and while it blows there's no inversion for a hillside to sit above. Both NOAA stations also sit on the floodplain, so no thermometer checks the hills. The winter number takes the fine-scale terrain at a quarter strength; the spring layer takes it at full strength. Bloom night is where the hills earn their keep.

The Floyd valley is the coldest corridor. The Floyd comes down out of northwest Iowa past Le Mars and Hinton, with hills on both sides feeding it cold air all night, and runs through the city in a straightened channel behind a high levee built after the floods of 1892 and 1953. The floor around Hinton plans for −31°F, the coldest town floor on the map, and Leeds, James and Springdale −30°F. A layer of draining cold air is only a few feet thick, so a levee, road fill or rail grade across low ground can back it up on the uphill side.

The point between the rivers runs cold too. Dakota Dunes plans for −30°F (the cold edge of 4a), and right at the mouth of the Big Sioux, where that valley empties out at 1,076 ft, the map reads 7°F colder than downtown at bloom, the worst spring reading of any place we name. Water doesn't save the bottoms; we couldn't find how often the Missouri stays open past Sioux City in January, and a river bottom is still the lowest ground. The oxbows (McCook Lake averages 6 ft deep, Browns Lake is about 12 ft at its deepest) sit in low spots on the floodplain, and lakes that shallow freeze over and stop helping in midwinter.

Town heat shows: South Sioux City plans for −27°F against −29°F for the floor around it, since pavement and brick hold the day's heat and buildings hide the sky. Out east, open farm country with no town to hold heat runs colder.

The two NOAA stations, on one field and listed 1 ft apart in elevation, show how fussy a calm-night low is: on January 2, 2018 the airport station read −28°F and the Air Guard station −24°F, and on January 2, 2010 the Air Guard station was the colder one. If one airfield can split 4°F, 150 to 290 ft of bluff can do far more.

Downtown Sioux City, Riverside and the bluffs north to Stone State Park

Downtown runs from the Riverfront up to about 8th Street, on floodplain 20 ft above the lowest ground near it: −28°F (zone 4a), typical winter −16°F. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −29°F and the slopes and benches −26°F.

West and north of downtown the bluffs rise straight out of the bottom. Prospect Hill, one of the oldest neighborhoods, sits on the hill's edge over the Missouri, Rose Hill and the Heights around Grandview Park, and Woodbury Heights in the western hills: slope and bench ground, the kind the map puts near −26°F. Watch the low lines through it. Gilman Terrace's 19th Street corridor cuts down through the bluff and Smith-Villa runs down to Perry Creek, and cuts and creek bottoms carry cold air at night. Riverside, flat on the Big Sioux floodplain, plans for −29°F and reads 2°F colder than downtown at bloom; War Eagle Park overlooks the confluence, which reads 7°F colder.

North of the city you're near the northern end of the Loess Hills. Stone State Park covers almost 1,600 acres of bluffs and ravines beside the Big Sioux, with prairie on the dry ridgetops and oak in the deep ravines. Brookdale, 150 ft up a 9 percent hillside, plans for −28°F and reads 4°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Yeomans, 160 ft up a 6 percent hillside (inside Montana State's recommended 4 to 8 percent grade), plans for −28°F and reads 10°F warmer, the best spring reading of any place we name.

For a downtown lot, plant to −28°F: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Haralson (−45°F) and Liberty (−30°F) apples, Summercrisp pear (−40°F), Toka plum (−45°F) to pollenize Superior (−35°F), and Meteor tart cherry (−40°F). On the bluffs and the north hills add Westcot apricot (−45°F), Lapins sweet cherry (−35°F) and Bill's Nectar peachcot (−30°F). Stay off the razor ridges and the steepest bluffs; Loess Hills ground erodes at about 40 tons per acre a year. The hills' eastern slopes are the gentler ones, and east is the aspect Bob Purvis likes: it warms quickly on a frosty spring morning and stays cooler on hot afternoons.

Morningside, Polack Hill and the south hills

Morningside is the hilly southeast quarter of the city, a late 1800s streetcar suburb and home of Morningside University since 1894. It sits on a bench 170 ft above the floor and it's the warmest named place on the map: −26°F (zone 4a, a hair from 4b), typical winter −14°F, 7°F warmer than downtown on a still bloom night. Peters Park, Cecelia Park and Sunnyside are part of it, Polack Hill at its western edge stands on one of the city's highest bluffs, and Southern Hills, the newest development, and Singing Hills lie to the south.

Not all of Morningside is up high. Pulaski Park, in the western part, sits on the filled bed of Half Moon Lake, and an old lake bed is low ground where cold collects. Bacon Creek Park lies northeast of Morningside and the creek's lower valley is Greenville; that valley and South Ravine carry cold air off the hills at night. A lot down in a ravine can play closer to the floor's numbers than the bench's.

This is the best fruit ground in the metro. Westcot, Debbie's Gold (−50°F) and Sungold (−40°F) apricots, Lapins and Gold (−35°F) sweet cherries, Italian plum (−35°F), and Siberian C (−35°F) and Contender (−30°F) peaches all fit. Contender, which Tom McCamant grows at Forbidden Fruit in Paradise, Montana, is the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F. Blushingstar (−25°F) is worth a try against a south wall here; it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage.

Leeds, Springdale and the Floyd valley to Hinton and Lawton

The Floyd enters Woodbury County near Leeds, annexed in 1890, around 41st Street and Floyd Boulevard. Leeds sits right on the floor: −30°F, just on the 3b side, typical winter −18°F, 2°F colder than downtown at bloom. Springdale, along 28th Street near the river, plans for −30°F (just on the 3b side) and reads 3°F colder. Greenville, on lower Bacon Creek and the old Floyd channel, sits on the same low line, and Country Club runs up the Perry Creek valley. On that side of town, the lower your lot sits against its neighbors, the more it plays like Leeds.

Up the valley, Hinton sits on a toe slope 20 ft above the floor: −30°F (just on the 3b side), 1°F colder than downtown at bloom, with its floor at −31°F and the slopes above it −28°F. Hinton Junction, just north, reads 5°F colder at bloom. Farther up the Floyd, the Le Mars, Sioux Center and Orange City map takes over. East of the bluffs it's rolling farm ground. Lawton, 7 miles east on US 20, plans for −30°F, just on the 3b side, and reads even with downtown at bloom; its slopes run 3°F warmer than its floor. Dodds, just northwest, plans for −31°F and reads 3°F colder, and Bronson −29°F, also 3°F colder.

Plant this country to −31°F: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite (−45°F) and Wolf River (−45°F) apples, Kerr applecrab (−50°F), Ure (−40°F) and Luscious (−40°F) pears, Toka with Pipestone (−40°F), and Evan's Bali tart cherry (−45°F). Keep apricots and peaches off the Floyd bottom.

South Sioux City, Dakota City and the northeast Nebraska side

South Sioux City sits across the Missouri from downtown on flat bottom, mostly 1,085 to 1,105 ft; the old towns of Covington, South Covington and Stanton merged into it. It plans for −27°F (zone 4a), typical winter −15°F, the warmest town on the floodplain, and reads 1°F colder than downtown at bloom. The floor within 3 miles plans for −29°F, so the town runs about 2°F warmer than its own bottomland. That's town heat on flat ground.

Dakota City, platted in 1856, plans for −28°F and reads 1°F colder at bloom, with no bench ground near it. Homer, at the south end of the map, plans for −28°F and reads 2°F colder. Jackson, nicknamed West Sioux City, moved south around 1860 when the rising Missouri threatened its first site; it plans for −28°F and reads 2°F colder. Hubbard, up at 1,158 ft, plans for −30°F (cold edge of 4a) and reads 2°F colder, with the slopes above it at −27°F.

A South Sioux City or Dakota City lot can take the downtown list plus Zestar!® (−40°F) apple, Bartlett pear (−35°F) and Italian plum. Lapins and Siberian C clear the winter number, but on the bottom their crop rides on bloom nights. At Hubbard, use the Floyd valley list.

North Sioux City, Dakota Dunes, McCook Lake and Jefferson

Across the Big Sioux in Union County, southeast South Dakota, North Sioux City sits on the point between the Missouri and the Big Sioux at about 1,100 ft. It plans for −29°F (zone 4a), typical winter −17°F, 2°F colder than downtown at bloom, with the floor around it at −30°F. Dakota Dunes, about 2,000 acres between the rivers, sits 10 ft above the floor and plans for −30°F (cold edge of 4a), typical winter −18°F, 1°F colder at bloom. It runs a bit colder than its own floor, low between the two rivers.

McCook Lake, a 273 acre oxbow with homes mostly on its north shore, plans for −30°F and reads 1°F colder at bloom; at an average depth of 6 ft it freezes over and does nothing for you in January. Wynstone, west of the lake, plans for −30°F. Jefferson, with the small Horseshoe Lake oxbow nearby, plans for −28°F in the village, but the coldest tenth of the bottomland around it plans for −31°F. Up the Missouri, the Yankton and Vermillion map covers you.

Plant this side to −30°F, or −31°F on the Jefferson bottoms: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite and Snowsweet® (−45°F) apples, Kerr and Centennial (−50°F) applecrabs, Ure and Luscious pears, Toka with Superior or Pipestone, and Evan's Bali and Meteor tart cherries.

Sergeant Bluff, Salix and the bottoms south to Browns Lake

Sergeant Bluff sits on the Missouri floodplain at the edge of the Loess Hills, with Sioux Gateway Airport and both NOAA stations just west of town. It plans for −28°F (zone 4a), typical winter −17°F, and reads even with downtown at bloom. The benches within 3 miles plan for −26°F, the warmest bench median of any town on the map, so the hill is the place for early bloomers. Glen Ellen, on bottomland northeast of town, plans for −28°F and reads 3°F colder.

Salix, named for its willow groves, sits near the lowest ground on the map at 1,081 ft: −29°F, 3°F colder than downtown at bloom. Browns Lake, about 2 miles west in Bigelow Park, is a Missouri oxbow left when the river moved west before settlement, and Snyder Bend was cut off in the early 1960s when the river was channelized; both have been hit by floods and droughts. The downtown list fits Salix and Sergeant Bluff. Keep fruit trees off the oxbow ground.

Spring frost and bloom in Siouxland

The spring layer follows the same drainage as the winter cold, only stronger, because it's the still, clear-night pattern at full strength. The hills read 4°F to 10°F warmer than downtown, the floodplain towns even to 3°F colder, the creek and river bottoms out of town 2°F to 3°F colder, and the Big Sioux mouth 7°F colder: 17°F between Yeomans and the Big Sioux mouth on the same night. In a windy freeze the pattern flattens and the warm hills won't be warm.

Frost dates from NOAA station records, 1991 to 2020 medians (last 32°F in spring, last 28°F, first 32°F in fall, frost-free days, and the late last 32°F that comes 1 year in 10):

• Sioux City airport: April 28, April 18, October 3, 155 days, May 17.
• Sioux City Air Guard station (18 years): April 30, April 16, October 9, 162 days, May 18.

Both sit on the floodplain, so the hills shake off frost earlier and the creek bottoms later. Michigan State's fruit people say open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying at about 28°F. Early warmth is the trap: on April 10 and 11, 2012, after early warm weather pushed bloom ahead, two freezing nights hit Iowa, and Iowa State's research station near Gilbert, in central Iowa, reached 20°F and expected little apple crop.

Site comes first; the FAO's frost protection manual calls it "the single most important method of frost protection." Put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries on the highest ground, apples and haskap (honeyberry) lower; a north or east slope holds early bloomers back. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and fully open haskap flowers take 19°F. Unless the fruit is clustered (cherries, grapes), most fruit can lose half its blossoms with little effect. Through bloom, mow short, don't till, and water a day or two before a forecast frost.

What the weather records say

The coldest reading in NOAA station records here is −35°F at the airport station on January 12, 1912. The big outbreaks since: January 17, 1930 (−22°F), February 16, 1936 (−25°F), January 2, 2010 (−22°F at the airport, −23°F at the Air Guard station), January 2, 2018 (−28°F and −24°F) and February 16, 2021 (−28°F and −26°F). Sioux City sees about 17 nights a year at or below 0°F and averages 36 inches of snow a season.

The airport's average yearly low over its whole record is −18°F. Sioux City is usually listed as USDA zone 5a. USDA's zones are built on that kind of average; ours are built on 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, and downtown fits: −16°F typical, −28°F to plan for. So our zone (4a downtown, 3b in the coldest spots) reads a full zone or more colder than USDA's 5a.

Timing matters as much as depth. On November 11, 1940, the Armistice Day storm dropped temperatures about 50°F from near 65°F that afternoon across Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, and Iowa's 1941 apple crop came in at about 15 percent of normal. Cold that early kills at temperatures a January tree shrugs off.

What you can grow here

The hills, the bluff neighborhoods and town lots: −26°F to −28°F

Morningside and the bluffs, the north hills, downtown, South Sioux City, Dakota City and Sergeant Bluff. Apples: Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!® and Liberty. Pears: Summercrisp and Bartlett. Plums: Toka, Superior and Italian. Cherries: Lapins, Gold and Meteor. Rainier (−30°F) clears the number, but it cracks where it rains at ripening, and most of the Loess Hills' rain comes in summer. Apricots: Westcot, Debbie's Gold and Sungold, on the hills. Peaches: Siberian C and Contender, with Blushingstar worth a try on a south wall in Morningside. Grapes: Marquette (−35°F), Frontenac (−35°F) and Prairie Star (−40°F).

The Missouri and Big Sioux bottoms: −28°F to −30°F

North Sioux City, Dakota Dunes, McCook Lake, Riverside, Salix, Homer, Jackson, Hubbard, Bronson and Wynstone. Apples: Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!®, Cortland (−40°F) and Sweet Sixteen (−40°F). Pears: Ure, Summercrisp and Flemish Beauty (−40°F). Plums: Toka, Superior, Pipestone and Mount Royal (−40°F). Cherries: Meteor and Evan's Bali; Lapins lives here, but its crop depends on bloom nights. Grapes: Frontenac, Marquette and La Crescent (−40°F).

The Floyd valley, the east upland and the coldest bottoms: −30°F to −31°F

Leeds, Springdale, Hinton, James, Lawton, Dodds and the Jefferson bottoms. Apples: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite, Wolf River and Snowsweet®, plus Kerr and Centennial applecrabs; Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a −47°F winter, and if you only plant one tree, make it Kerr or Trailman (−60°F). Pears: Ure and Luscious. Plums: Toka, Pipestone and Brookred (−50°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali and Romeo (−50°F). Grapes: Valiant (−50°F) and La Crescent. No apricots, peaches or sweet cherries down here.

Berries fit anywhere on the map: honeyberry (−50°F), Montana Black Currant (−50°F), Red Lake currant (−40°F), Boyne raspberry (−40°F) and aronia (−50°F). Iowa State says apples and pears need two varieties and hybrid plums another hybrid (Toka pollenizes Superior), tart cherries are self-fruitful, and Sungold apricot needs a partner. Our pollination maps sort out the pairs.

Roots are the weak link, and snow protects them; at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow without damage. The bottoms hold their snow; windswept ridgetops don't. Iowa State says trees in poorly drained soil often die within a few years. Loess drains easily, but on the bottoms test first (dig 2 ft, fill, let it drain, refill: under 10 hours is well drained), and stay off ground that flooded in 2011, 2019 or 2024. A windbreak at least as tall as the trees and 40 to 60 percent dense helps, but not a solid one across the low side of a slope, where it dams cold air into the trees above it. Taper water from mid-August so trees harden off. Apple scab, cedar-apple rust, powdery mildew and fire blight all show up in Iowa orchards.

Fruit growing in Siouxland

Iowa gave the country the Delicious apple, found as Hawkeye in Jesse Hiatt's orchard in Madison County and renamed by Stark Bros. in 1893. Autumn Grove Orchard, on the northeast edge of Sioux City, is the only apple u-pick PickYourOwn lists in Woodbury or Plymouth County. Stephanie Heger and her husband planted over 1,000 dwarf trees on a trellis in spring 2012, on a sloped acre that had been alfalfa, and picked their first apples in 2013. The Loess Hills District wine region, Iowa's second, established in 2016, runs along the Big Sioux and Missouri from Hawarden, Iowa, to Craig, Missouri.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Sioux City, Iowa?

On our map downtown Sioux City plans for −28°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter low of −16°F. Morningside is the warm end at −26°F, and the Floyd bottoms and Lawton run −30°F to −31°F, zone 3b in the coldest spots. Sioux City is usually listed as USDA zone 5a; USDA's zones are built on the average winter's coldest night, ours on the bad night you plan for.

When is the last frost in Sioux City?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at the Sioux City airport on April 28 and the last 28°F on April 18. One year in 10 the last 32°F comes May 17 or later. The creek bottoms run later and the hills earlier.

Can you grow peaches and sweet cherries in Sioux City?

Yes, with the right varieties on the right ground. Siberian C peach and Lapins and Gold sweet cherries have come through −35°F, past anything on this map, and Contender peach −30°F. The catch is bloom: put them on the hills, where a still spring night runs 4°F to 10°F warmer than downtown.

Where are the frost pockets in Sioux City?

The creek and river bottoms. Leeds and Springdale on the Floyd plan for −30°F and read 2°F to 3°F colder than downtown at bloom, the mouth of the Big Sioux reads 7°F colder, and the Floyd floor around Hinton plans for −31°F. On the same still night Morningside reads 7°F warmer than downtown.

What fruit trees grow in South Sioux City and North Sioux City?

South Sioux City plans for −27°F and North Sioux City −29°F. Haralson, Honeycrisp and Zestar!® apples, Ure and Summercrisp pears, Toka and Superior plums, and Meteor and Evan's Bali tart cherries have room to spare. Lapins and Siberian C clear the winter number, but on the bottoms their crop rides on bloom nights.

Do fruit trees in Sioux City need a pollenizer?

Apples, pears and hybrid plums do: plant two varieties that bloom together, like Toka to pollenize Superior. Tart cherries such as Meteor and Evan's Bali are self-fruitful.

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.