Fruit Trees for Syracuse, Auburn, Skaneateles, Cazenovia and Baldwinsville, New York

On January 26, 1966, the Syracuse airport station, out on the flat lake plain northeast of the city, read −26°F, still the coldest reading in its NOAA record. Auburn read −15°F in the same cold snap. At Christmas 1980 it went the other way: a station 4 miles northeast of Tully, at 1,300 feet, read −32°F while the airport read −22°F. Picking fruit trees for Syracuse, Auburn, Skaneateles, Cazenovia and Baldwinsville comes down to which of those two kinds of cold your ground catches, and what a still May night does to it.

The map covers the corner of Central New York where the Finger Lakes meet the Ontario Lowland, from Port Byron and Auburn east through Syracuse to Cazenovia, Canastota and Oneida Lake's south shore, north to Baldwinsville and Cicero, south to Moravia, Tully and DeRuyter. 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, the same kind of number our cold hardiness calculator uses. It leans cold on purpose, 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 is built on. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Syracuse on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b); the coldest 5 percent for −32°F or colder, the warmest 5 percent for −21°F or warmer. Downtown, the reference town, plans for −24°F too (typical winter −9°F). The warm end is the low hill country southwest of Baldwinsville, where The Kingdom plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a). The cold end is the Madison County plateau, where New Woodstock and Puckerville plan for −35°F (MFTC 3b).

Why the map looks the way it does

Onondaga County comes in three belts: a level lake plain to the north (the bed of glacial Lake Iroquois, with Oneida Lake left in a deeper hollow of it), a middle band of scattered drumlins, and the Appalachian Plateau to the south. About 5 miles south of the city the hills reach 1,500 feet, against 370 feet at Onondaga Lake. The north half drains to the Seneca River, the east down Chittenango Creek to Oneida Lake, and the divide runs through the Tully area, where Onondaga Creek heads north and the Tioughnioga's West Branch heads south.

On a clear, calm winter night the cold is made on the low ground: the floor radiates its heat to the sky, cold air slides off the slopes, and the lake plain fills like a basin. The 1966 numbers fit that pattern. When deep arctic air settles over the whole region, the plateau starts colder and its own valleys pool on top of that. NOAA station records show the Morrisville 6 SW station, up in the Madison County hills at 1,681 feet, running a median 8°F colder than the airport on the year's coldest night over 40 years. The planning low draws on both kinds of night, so it gets colder as you climb onto the plateau: LaFayette, at 1,133 feet, plans for −27°F, Tully −28°F, Cazenovia −33°F.

Between the two sits the thermal belt. On still nights milder air rides over the pool, and the first few hundred feet of slope stay in it. Within 3 miles of downtown the floor plans for −24°F and the benches −21°F, and hillsides 100 to 500 feet up read up to 14°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Up on the plateau the flats make their own cold. Around DeRuyter the floor plans for −34°F and the benches −30°F, and at Christmas 1980 the Tully 4 NE station read −32°F while the Heiberg Forest station, 600 feet higher, read −29°F. In Pompey the hamlet, near the top at 1,667 feet, plans for −27°F, and Delphi Falls, in a hollow about 700 feet lower, −33°F.

Draws and slots carry cold down and hold it. Near town the ones to watch are the Syracuse channels, cut by meltwater at the end of the last ice age: the Green Lakes gorge, about 500 feet deep counting its fill, the plunge basin at Clark Reservation where Glacier Lake sits under 180-foot cliffs, Smoky Hollow and Pumpkin Hollow. A steep-walled slot with a closed basin fills with cold on a calm night, though we haven't found a measurement from any of these. Rams Gulch, a draw just north of Jamesville, reads 5°F colder than downtown at bloom, and the Otisco Valley and Spafford Valley carry cold off the uplands to the south end of Otisco Lake.

Water does less in winter than you'd hope. The map shows no shore warmth along Onondaga Lake, and Oneida Lake, big but only 22 feet deep on average, freezes over, so its south shore gets no winter shelter. Still, the map runs mildest in the west and coldest in the east, and so do the stations: the Aurora Research Farm station, just west of the map toward Cayuga Lake, has a record of only −20°F in 57 years, and an old Fayetteville station ran a median 7°F colder than Auburn. That fits nearness to the big Finger Lakes, though we haven't found a published study that pins it down. Town heat counts on still nights; our map gives built-up ground up to 2.5°F, but most of the warmth in the city's numbers comes from its hills. On windy or cloudy nights the whole pattern flattens or flips; the spring layer is the calm, clear-night picture, because that's the night that does the damage at bloom.

Downtown Syracuse, the Valley and the city hills

Downtown sits on the floor at 396 feet, with Onondaga Creek running north through it to Onondaga Lake, and plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −9°F). Many of the Salt City's neighborhoods sit on small hills, and that's where the numbers split: within 3 miles of downtown the warmest tenth of growing ground plans for −21°F and the coldest tenth −25°F. The low side: Armory Square, Southwest and the two Valley neighborhoods on the creek's floor plan for −25°F, and Lakefront, the lowest neighborhood at 365 feet, −25°F with the city's coldest bloom reading, 4°F colder than downtown. The high side: Strathmore, around Onondaga Park, 210 feet above its floor, plans for −21°F and reads 11°F warmer at bloom. University Hill, Westcott, Outer Comstock, Skytop and Northside plan for −21°F, Meadowbrook's point on the hillside −20°F, the warmest in the city, and Lincoln Park and Eastwood −22°F.

On the hills, anything rated −25°F or colder is a good pick: Glowingstar and Redstar peaches, Stella sweet cherry, Hardired nectarine, SnowCzar almond. Baldwin apple and Bing cherry, rated −20°F, are worth a try near a south or west wall up there. On the floor the −25°F trees clear downtown but are only worth a try where your number reads −25°F; the safe picks are rated −30°F and colder, like Contender peach, Rainier and Lapins cherries and Italian plum. Peaches and cherries go on the hills, apples and bush fruit in the Valley and by the lake.

Liverpool, Cicero, Baldwinsville and the lake plain

North of the city the old lake plain runs flat at 370 to 420 feet, with silt loams of varying drainage and big wetlands like Cicero Swamp. It's mostly floor: North Syracuse plans for −23°F, Mattydale −24°F, Clay −22°F, Cicero −24°F. With almost no bench ground nearby, a few feet of rise makes the difference, and low, wet, grassy ground like the edges of Cicero Swamp runs cold. Euclid, on the river bottom near Clay, reads 6°F colder than downtown at bloom. Liverpool, on the northeast bank of Onondaga Lake, plans for −23°F and reads 4°F warmer.

Baldwinsville straddles the Seneca River at 380 feet, right on the bottom, and plans for −25°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −11°F). Climb out and it changes fast: Van Buren, 120 feet up south of the river, plans for −21°F and reads 6°F warmer at bloom, and near Ionia, The Kingdom, 250 feet above its floor, plans for −19°F and reads 12°F warmer. This is drumlin country, and Abbott Farms runs u-pick at Baldwinsville. West along the river, Jordan and Weedsport (where Owen Orchards runs a cider mill) plan for −23°F, while Mosquito Point on the river bottom reads 4°F colder than downtown at bloom.

Every place named here plans for −25°F or a bit warmer, so the −25°F trees clear and the −30°F trees give you room: Northern Spy and Evercrisp apples, Stanley plum, Harlayne apricot, Blushingstar peach. On the bottoms, plant Honeycrisp and Liberty apples and honeyberries, and save the rises for apricots, peaches and sweet cherries.

Solvay, Camillus and Marcellus along Nine Mile Creek

Nine Mile Creek carries Otisco Lake's water north through Marcellus and Camillus to Onondaga Lake, and its valley is the cold line through the west side. Camillus village sits right on the creek's floor, plans for −25°F and reads 4°F colder than downtown at bloom; Marcellus village, flat on its floor at 678 feet, plans for −25°F. The subdivisions on the hills between Fairmount and Camillus, like Westerlea, West Genesee Terrace and Orchard Village, sit 130 to 150 feet up, plan for −22°F to −23°F and read 4°F to 9°F warmer at bloom. Howlett Hill, 400 feet above its floor, plans for −22°F and reads 13°F warmer.

Solvay sits on the hill above Onondaga Lake's southwest shore, where the country's first Solvay Process plant opened in 1884. The village, 140 feet above its floor, plans for −21°F and reads 7°F warmer at bloom, while the floor within 3 miles plans for −25°F. On these hills the −25°F peaches and Purvis Hardy English walnut clear with room, and Arctic Glo nectarine (−20°F) is worth a try against a south wall. Down along the creek, plant to −30°F: Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet, Concord grape, and Montana Black Currant for the coldest corner.

Skaneateles, Otisco Lake and the lake hills

Skaneateles Lake is the high one, its surface at 863 feet, with ridges some 600 feet above the water. The village, at the north end on US 20, plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −8°F) and reads 2°F warmer than downtown Syracuse at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −26°F and the benches −22°F. Skaneateles Falls plans for −23°F and reads 7°F warmer at bloom. Mandana on the west shore plans for −24°F and reads 5°F warmer; Borodino, up on the east side at 1,110 feet, −23°F and 10°F warmer.

The south ends are where the cold settles. Where Skaneateles runs out into bogs, Fair Haven sits about at lake level, plans for −26°F and reads 6°F colder than downtown at bloom. Otisco Lake splits more sharply: Williams Grove, on the flat at its south end, plans for −26°F and reads 8°F colder, while Otisco hamlet, 460 feet up the hill, plans for −25°F and reads 7°F warmer. The warm hillsides above both lakes are the place for Tomcot apricot, Black Gold sweet cherry and Shiro plum; the low south ends are for apples, haskap and currants rated −30°F and colder. On the Cayuga side or toward Cortland, the Ithaca and Cortland map covers you.

Auburn, Owasco Lake and Moravia

Auburn sits at the north end of Owasco Lake, 100 feet above its floor at 678 feet, and plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −7°F), reading 6°F warmer than downtown Syracuse at bloom. NOAA station records back that up: Auburn's average yearly low over 92 years is −9°F against the airport's −11°F, and in the January 1957 cold snap Auburn read −14°F while the airport read −24°F. Owasco Lake's shore hamlets plan for −24°F (Melrose Park) to −25°F (Cascade at the south end), and Owasco hamlet, in the hills east of the lake, −24°F with a bloom reading 8°F warmer.

The best ground on this side is the high ground south of Auburn between Owasco and Cayuga lakes, where Fleming plans for −21°F and Sherwood, around 1,050 feet, −20°F. Moravia, south of the lake on the Owasco Inlet, sits flat on its floor and plans for −26°F (MFTC 4a). The winter low here clears nearly the whole list, so pick by bloom: apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and pears on the slopes that read warm, and the inlet flats at Moravia for apples, haskap and currants.

DeWitt, Fayetteville, Manlius, Chittenango and Oneida Lake

East of the city DeWitt and East Syracuse plan for −24°F and read 1°F and 3°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Fayetteville, on a terrace 110 feet above its floor, plans for −23°F and reads 6°F warmer. Manlius village, in a creek draw, plans for −25°F (MFTC 4a) and reads 1°F colder. Jamesville, home of Clark Reservation, plans for −24°F. Past Chittenango the low ground runs colder: Chittenango plans for −26°F and reads 2°F colder at bloom, and Canastota and Wampsville plan for −28°F. No long-record NOAA station sits in that lowland, so its number leans on the stations around it. Along Oneida Lake's south shore, Lakeport plans for −26°F and Sylvan Beach −29°F, though the shore reads about 2°F warmer than downtown on a bloom night.

At Fayetteville, DeWitt and Jamesville the −25°F trees clear. From Manlius east, plant to −30°F: Northern Spy, Contender and Veteran peaches, Rainier, Stanley, all of which still clear at Sylvan Beach. Out toward Oneida and Rome, the Utica, Rome and Mohawk Valley map picks up.

Onondaga Hill, LaFayette and the Tully Valley

South of the city the Onondaga Valley climbs toward the Tully Valley, and the hills on either side are the best fruit ground near Syracuse. Onondaga Hill, 450 feet above its floor, plans for −21°F (typical winter −6°F) and reads 12°F warmer than downtown at bloom, while Nedrow, near the valley floor, plans for −24°F. West of the valley, the top of Lords Hill plans for −23°F and reads 13°F warmer, and Joshua, about a mile west, reads 14°F warmer, the best spring reading of any named town or hamlet we checked. Beak and Skiff farms the hillside above US 20, the Cherry Valley Turnpike, on Lords Hill Road, and a local history of the farm names cold air settling into the valley as its main frost problem.

Higher up the plateau takes over. LaFayette, on a bench at 1,133 feet, plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a, typical winter −12°F), though it still reads 5°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Tully village, on the floor at 1,251 feet, plans for −28°F and reads 2°F colder at bloom. On Onondaga Hill and Lords Hill everything rated −25°F and colder fits, and the bloom readings are the best around for early bloomers: Westcot apricot, Redstar peach, Gold sweet cherry, and Toka and Superior plums. Toka is a good pollenizer for Superior; our pollination maps show the rest. At LaFayette and Tully, plant to −30°F.

Pompey, Cazenovia and the Madison County hills

Cazenovia sits at the south end of Cazenovia Lake at 1,227 feet, about 800 feet above Syracuse. The village plans for −33°F (MFTC 3b, typical winter −17°F), 9°F colder than downtown, though it reads 5°F warmer at bloom; North Cazenovia, on the hill 460 feet above its floor, plans for −29°F. Then come the valleys, home to the coldest named places we checked: New Woodstock and Puckerville, on the floor at 1,306 feet, −35°F, DeRuyter −34°F, Fabius −32°F. In Pompey, Watervale, down in the hollows, plans for −30°F and reads 6°F colder than downtown at bloom; Pompey Hollow and The Tunnel are named valleys there worth checking. Owera Vineyards at Cazenovia says its topography limits it to cold hardy grapes, and Critz Farms there lost about 95 percent of its apples to the May 2023 freeze.

Up here the winter low is the main event. Plant to −35°F and colder: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Zestar!® and Cortland apples, Kerr applecrab, Evans Bali tart cherry, Westcot apricot, Mount Royal plum, Summercrisp pear, Siberian C peach (the hardiest peach we know of) and La Crescent grape. At New Woodstock and Puckerville the −35°F trees clear with nothing to spare. The −30°F trees like Contender clear the hill at North Cazenovia, and that's where apricots and plums belong, not down in the valleys.

Spring frost and bloom around Syracuse

On the lake plain and the lower hills the winter low clears most of what we sell, so bloom nights decide the crop. Michigan State's fruit people put the point where open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum start dying at about 28°F, so a few degrees of spring reading matters. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop (University of Minnesota), and open haskap flowers take 19°F. Our rule of thumb: unless the fruit is clustered, like cherries and grapes, most fruit can lose half its blossoms with little effect.

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the Syracuse airport station, on the lake plain at 399 feet, a median last 32°F frost of April 29 and a last 28°F of April 16; one year in ten the last 32°F comes May 15 or later. Its first fall 32°F comes October 17, for a 164-day frost-free season. The Auburn station, at 770 feet, runs later in spring on 19 years of data, with a median last 32°F of May 11 and a 162-day season; the record doesn't say why, so treat both as guides. The Aurora Research Farm station, just west of the map, has the same April 29 last frost as the airport but holds its first fall 28°F off until November 8, which fits a big lake's habit of delaying fall frost.

A late-spring freeze in 1945 killed Beak and Skiff's whole apple crop. In 2023 below-freezing nights came on several days from May 14 to 25, and May 17 and 18 did the most damage. CNY Central's meteorologist reported the mid-20s°F for several hours, mainly at higher elevations. Critz Farms at Cazenovia lost about 95 percent, and Cornell put statewide apple losses at about 20 percent, saying nearness to the lakes helped and so did being in a valley. Sources differ on whether high or low ground fared better. A calm radiation frost pools in the bottoms, the pattern our spring layer shows, but a cold air mass moving in on a breeze hits high ground hardest. For the Lake Ontario shore, where the big lake holds bloom back, see the Oswego and Fulton map.

So site comes first. Put apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and pears on slopes that read warm at bloom, off the floor and off the windswept crest, and keep pears off frosty low ground; apples, haskap, currants and gooseberries go lower. Don't plant the dead end of a hollow above its outlet, and open a gap in any hedge or fence across the bottom of a slope so the cold keeps moving. Cornell advises mixing varieties that bloom at different times so one frost doesn't take everything. Frost cloth helps on a calm night (0.5 to 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F to 8°F, by Alabama's fruit people), but a wind machine does nothing in a windy freeze.

What the weather records say

The Syracuse airport's coldest on record is −26°F, reached in December 1942, January 1966 and February 1979. Auburn's record is −32°F on February 9, 1934, a cold snap that took the Morrisville 6 SW station to −34°F while the old Syracuse station read −24°F. Morrisville's own record is −37°F and the old DeRuyter station's −40°F, both on December 30, 1917. Since the 1995-96 winter the worst has been −23°F at the airport (February 2016) and −32°F at Morrisville (the 2003-04 winter).

We haven't confirmed USDA's 2023 zone for Syracuse. USDA's map is built on the average of each winter's coldest night, about −9°F downtown on our map. Our MFTC zone plans for the bad night, so downtown is 4b at −24°F, Auburn 4b at −22°F and Cazenovia 3b at −33°F, usually more than a full zone colder than USDA. Syracuse's record snow season brought 192.1 inches (1992-93), and Auburn averages 101.6 inches a winter, which is good news for roots.

What you can grow here

Most of what we sell clears the winter on the lake plain, in the city and on the Finger Lakes side; the plateau is where the list gets shorter. Match the rating to your number, then pick by bloom.

The warm hills, −19°F to −23°F (the city's hill neighborhoods, Solvay, Onondaga Hill, Lords Hill, Fayetteville, Liverpool, Van Buren, Auburn): everything rated −25°F or colder, including Glockenapfel and Newtown Pippin apples, Harrow Sweet pear and Montana Trial persimmon. Worth a try near a south or west wall: the −20°F trees like Baldwin apple, Bing cherry and Santa Rosa plum.

Downtown, the Valley, the lake plain, the river bottoms and the lake shores, −24°F to −26°F: plant to −30°F. Northern Spy and Belle de Boskoop apples, Contender and Blushingstar peaches, Rainier and Lapins cherries, Montmorency tart cherry, Stanley and Italian plums, D'Anjou pear on the higher part of the lot. The −25°F trees are worth a try where your number reads −25°F or −26°F.

LaFayette, Tully, Pompey, Chittenango, Canastota and the Oneida Lake shore, −26°F to −30°F: plant to −30°F and lean on the −35°F trees for room: Empire, Macoun and Liberty apples, Siberian C peach, White Gold sweet cherry, Bartlett and Seckel pears, Hardy Iowa apricot, Marquette grape.

Cazenovia, Nelson, Fabius, DeRuyter and New Woodstock, −31°F to −35°F: the Cazenovia list above, plus Wolf River apple, Trailman applecrab and Brookgold plum. If you only plant one tree up there, make it Kerr or Trailman.

Bush fruit fits everywhere on this map: honeyberries, Montana Black Currant, Red Lake currant, Pixwell gooseberry, Boyne raspberry. Cornell says blueberries need a soil pH below 5, and the limey Honeoye till of the drumlin belt runs neutral to alkaline underneath, so give our Cold Climate Blueberry Bundle an acidified bed.

Roots are the weak link in a dormant tree, and snow protects them; Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage under snow at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana. Plowed town lots and windswept hilltops lose their snow, so mulch the root zone there. Site trees the way our friend Bob Purvis does: an east-facing slope is ideal, a north slope holds early bloomers back, and you want a slope, not a windswept hilltop or the bottom. Test drainage first (dig 2 feet, fill it, let it drain, refill: under 10 hours is well drained), and in zone 4 taper water from mid-August so trees harden off. Cornell lists the local troubles as apple scab, fire blight, plum curculio, spotted wing drosophila (monitor and use exclusion netting) and black knot of plum (prune out the cankers in winter).

Fruit history here

George Skiff, an onion farmer from Syracuse's north side, and Andrew Beak, a dairyman, started Beak and Skiff in LaFayette in 1911. Its history reads like a list of what this weather does to an orchard: a 1937 drought that stripped the leaves, the 1945 freeze, then smudge pots in 1949, irrigation in 1951 and wind machines in 1956, reported as the first in the Northeast, to push cold air up and out of the valley on freeze nights. The LaFayette Apple Festival has run since 1973. Grapes are new: Anyela's opened in 2008 as Skaneateles Lake's first winery, and Owera, planted in 2008, was Madison County's first.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Syracuse, NY?

Downtown Syracuse plans for −24°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −9°F. We haven't confirmed USDA's 2023 zone for Syracuse; USDA's map averages each winter's coldest night, while ours plans for the bad one. Hill neighborhoods like Strathmore and Meadowbrook plan for −20°F to −21°F, the Valley and Lakefront −25°F.

When is the last frost in Syracuse?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 give the Syracuse airport station a median last 32°F frost of April 29, and one year in ten it comes May 15 or later. The Auburn station runs later, with a median of May 11.

Can you grow peaches in Syracuse?

Yes. Downtown's −24°F clears the −25°F peaches like Glowingstar and Redstar, and Contender, Veteran and Blushingstar (−30°F) clear everything but the coldest uplands around Cazenovia, Fabius and DeRuyter. Siberian C (−35°F) clears every named place we checked. Plant peaches on a hill that reads warm at bloom, like Onondaga Hill or Strathmore.

Why did Central New York apples freeze in 2023?

Freezing nights came on several days between May 14 and 25, 2023, with May 17 and 18 the worst, and the mid-20s°F held for hours while trees were in bloom. Critz Farms in Cazenovia lost about 95 percent of its apples, and Cornell put statewide losses at about 20 percent.

Where are the frost pockets around Syracuse?

On a still bloom night some of the coldest named places we checked are lake-head flats, river bottoms and draws: Williams Grove at the south end of Otisco Lake (8°F colder than downtown), Fair Haven at the south end of Skaneateles Lake and Euclid near Clay (6°F colder), and Rams Gulch near Jamesville (5°F colder). For winter cold the plateau valleys are worst: New Woodstock and Puckerville at −35°F, DeRuyter at −34°F.

What growing zone is Cazenovia?

Cazenovia village plans for −33°F, MFTC zone 3b, with a typical winter of −17°F, about 9°F colder than downtown Syracuse. The hill at North Cazenovia plans for −29°F. Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!®, Westcot apricot, Evans Bali tart cherry and Siberian C peach all clear it.

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.