Fruit Trees for Traverse City, Old Mission and Leelanau, Michigan

The Grand Traverse Herald started logging the day the bay froze in 1858. The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay keeps that record now, counting the bay frozen when West Bay ices over out to Power Island for at least 24 hours. That happened in 84 percent of winters before 1980 and in about 40 percent since; February 3, 2026 was the first freeze since 2019. Open water, the hills that shed cold air toward it and the low ground where the cold collects are what sort out fruit trees for Traverse City, Old Mission and Leelanau, and across the Grand Traverse region. On this map the planning low at named places runs from −14°F at Bingham, up on the Leelanau, to −32°F at Fife Lake.

The map covers Traverse City, the Old Mission Peninsula, eastern Leelanau, the East Bay shore out to Elk Rapids and Torch Lake, and the uplands south through Interlochen, Kingsley and Fife Lake. 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: a safe number to plan for, not a forecast and 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 zones use. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Traverse City on a still, clear night at bloom. It swings far harder than the winter number, from 13°F warmer than downtown on Hickory Hill to 8°F colder at Platte River Junction.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −20°F, the warmest 5 percent for −15°F or warmer and the coldest 5 percent for −31°F or colder. Downtown, the reference town, plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −3°F). Bingham, on the Leelanau upland, plans for −14°F (MFTC 5b) and Old Mission village −15°F; out in the sand country southeast of town, Kingsley plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a) and Fife Lake −32°F (MFTC 3b).

Why the map looks the way it does

Start with the water. Grand Traverse Bay is about 32 miles long and up to 620 feet deep, and its surface, at 581 feet, is the lowest ground on the map. The Old Mission Peninsula splits it into the shallower West Bay and the deeper East Bay, and the Leelanau Peninsula walls it off from open Lake Michigan. Deep open water warms its shore on a still winter night (an Illinois State Water Survey study puts the Great Lakes' lift to mean winter lows at about 7°F near Lake Michigan), but only while it's mostly free of ice. The bay now freezes in well under half of winters, usually in February and for 20 to 40 days, where older freezes held 70 days or even 116.

NOAA station records show the spread. The station at the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center, on the southeast Leelanau upland at 820 feet, runs a median 6°F warmer on the year's coldest night than Cherry Capital Airport (608 feet), 11 miles away. Fife Lake 4 SW, in the upland sand country at 1,079 feet, ran a median 14°F colder than the airport over 47 years. In the February 20, 2015 cold snap, four days after the bay froze over, the research farm read −14°F, the airport −22°F and Fife Lake 2WNW −29°F.

Height above the low ground does the rest. This is drumlin and moraine country, and it climbs fast, from the bay to Hickory Hill at about 988 feet. On a clear, calm night cold air slides off the hills into the Boardman valley, the creek draws and the swampy ends of the inland lakes, with a warmer layer above. The winter number takes that terrain at a quarter strength, so within 3 miles of downtown the floor plans for −21°F and the benches −17°F. The spring layer takes it at full strength, and there Hickory Hill, 370 feet above its floor, reads 13°F warmer than downtown.

Away from the water it turns. South and southeast of town the ground climbs to 1,000 to 1,100 feet around Kingsley and Fife Lake, toward the Kalkaska County line. Sandy upland this far from the lake gives back little heat on a clear night. Low ground by the bay can pool hard too: on February 17, 1979 the airport set its record, −37°F, while Fife Lake 4 SW read −33°F and Maple City −24°F in that cold snap. We haven't found a published explanation for why the airport runs 3°F colder than Munson. The airport sits on low ground southeast of downtown and Munson on the west side by the rolling Grand Traverse Commons, and that fits the way cold settles.

Wind flattens all of it. In the April 20, 2026 freeze, near 20°F with wind, a grower south of Suttons Bay saw high ground and low parts of orchards both hurt. Snow matters too: Traverse City gets roughly 80 to 100 inches in a normal winter, much of it lake-effect, and heavy snow generally keeps Leelanau soil from freezing. That's good for roots, though the air above snow runs colder on a clear night.

Traverse City neighborhoods, from Slabtown to the East Side

Downtown sits at the head of West Bay, where the Boardman River comes north out of Boardman Lake, hooks around downtown and picks up Kids Creek before the bay. It plans for −19°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −3°F), and within 3 miles the coldest tenth of the ground plans for −22°F and the warmest −16°F. Nearly every neighborhood lands at −18°F or −19°F in winter; bloom nights are what split them.

Slabtown runs up Randolph Street from the old West Bay waterfront toward the Hickory Hills ski area. It plans for −18°F and reads 1°F colder than downtown at bloom, but Hickory Hill behind it plans for −16°F and reads 13°F warmer, the warmest spring reading of any named place we checked. Kids Creek, named for the creek that runs down through the Grand Traverse Commons, plans for −18°F but reads 2°F colder, with the creek valley carrying cold toward the bay. NOAA's Munson station is on this side of town, and its median last 32°F frost is May 13, four days earlier than the airport's.

South and east of downtown, Central (Sixth Street, the old Silk Stocking Row), Boardman and Oak Park plan for −19°F and Old Towne −18°F, all within 1°F of downtown at bloom. Fernwood and Traverse Heights, on flat floor farther south, read 2°F and 1°F colder, while Boughey Hill, on a bench 110 feet up nearby, plans for −18°F and reads 6°F warmer. On the East Side (once called Booneville), Oakwood, Oakwood Triangle and Indian Woods plan for −19°F, but within 3 miles of Indian Woods the floor plans for −21°F and the coldest tenth −23°F. Base of Old Mission (BOOM), 90 feet above its floor, plans for −17°F and reads 6°F warmer, and Carpenter Hill above it −16°F and 9°F warmer. In town, put apricots, peaches and sweet cherries on Boughey Hill, BOOM and the slopes toward Hickory Hill, and keep the Kids Creek bottom and the south-side flats for apples, haskap and currants.

The Old Mission Peninsula and Peninsula Township

The peninsula runs 17 to 19 miles north from the city between the two arms of the bay, with Center Road (M-37) up its spine to Mission Point, just south of the 45th parallel. It rises steeply from the shore, unusual for this region, and the ridge is the story at bloom. The 1987 rule creating the Old Mission Peninsula wine appellation called it virtually frost-free, saying spring frosts that wiped out crops elsewhere in the region did little or no damage there, and Isaiah Wunsch keeps his cherries on a hilltop, which runs warmer than the low spots.

The Peninsula Township hillside, 130 feet above its floor, plans for −17°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −1°F) and reads 7°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Mapleton, midway up M-37, plans for −17°F and reads 9°F warmer, and Neahtawanta, near Bowers Harbor, −16°F and 5°F warmer. Old Mission village, on the East Arm near the tip, plans for −15°F (typical winter about 0°F), one of the warmest numbers of any named place we checked, but it sits on flat shore and reads even with downtown at bloom. In winter the tip wins; at bloom the ridge does. NOAA's 1895 to 1929 Old Mission station ran a median 3°F warmer than the airport, and a later station south of the village read −19°F in the February 1996 cold snap to the airport's −25°F. Sweet cherries, apricots and peaches go on the ridge; the harbor flats are for apples and bush fruit.

Greilickville, Suttons Bay, Peshawbestown and Omena

Greilickville, the Traverse City suburb on West Bay, sits right on the floor, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a) and reads even with downtown at bloom. Up the shore, Cherry Bend plans for −18°F and reads 2°F colder at bloom, and Crystal Spring −18°F and 2°F warmer.

Suttons Bay, 15 miles north of town, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −3°F) and reads 1°F warmer than downtown at bloom. By Michigan State Extension's figures, Leelanau County alone has 26 percent of Michigan's tart cherry acreage and 48 percent of its sweet, and the ground behind the village shows why growers plant hills. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −20°F and the benches −15°F, and the Suttons Bay Township hillside, 260 feet above its floor on a 14 percent slope, plans for −15°F (MFTC 5b) with bloom nights 11°F warmer than downtown. Peshawbestown plans for −17°F and reads 5°F warmer, Omena −17°F and 2°F warmer. NOAA's Northport 2W station, at the map's north edge, has a median last 32°F frost of May 11. Hills don't save you in a windy freeze, though: in 2012 Cherry Bay Orchards north of Suttons Bay lost an estimated 90 percent or more to a long, windy freeze into the mid-20s°F.

Bingham, Lake Leelanau, Leland and Cedar

Inland, the Leelanau is upland, plateaus 250 to 400 feet above Lake Michigan, and it holds the warmest winter numbers we found. Bingham, at about 725 feet, plans for −14°F (MFTC 5b, typical winter 0°F), the warmest of any named place we checked, and Keswick −15°F. The research center's station on County Road 633 backs that up, with a 30-year number of −12°F and 183 frost-free days. At bloom the steep hills win: Fouch Hill and Sugarloaf Mountain read 12°F warmer than downtown. Isadore and Schomberg, on flat benches 130 to 140 feet up, read 4°F and 3°F colder; ground that flat makes its own cold on a still night and has nowhere to send it.

Lake Leelanau freezes (the South Lake Leelanau record, kept since 1982, averages 99 days of ice), and an iced-over lake gives its shore nothing on the coldest nights. The village of Lake Leelanau, at the Narrows, plans for −18°F and reads 1°F colder than downtown at bloom. Cedar, at the lake's marshy south end, plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), and Solon, on the floor southeast of it, −20°F with bloom nights 4°F colder. Leland, on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Leland River, plans for −16°F (MFTC 5a).

Acme, Elk Rapids, Williamsburg and Torch Lake

The head of East Bay plans a little colder than the head of West Bay. Acme, at the head of the bay, plans for −20°F (MFTC 4b, typical winter −4°F) and reads 1°F colder than downtown at bloom, but Holiday Hills, 2 miles south and 130 feet above its floor, plans for −18°F and reads 4°F warmer, and the East Bay Township bench, 270 feet up, 6°F warmer. Elk Rapids, on an isthmus between Elk Lake and East Bay, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a, typical winter −2°F), a shade warmer than downtown, and reads even with it at bloom.

Elk Lake freezes (its lake association has seen freeze-up anywhere from December 22 to January 28), but Torch Lake, 19 miles long and about 300 feet deep, stores so much heat it often doesn't. Even so, the village of Torch Lake plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b) with the floor around it at −26°F, and Torch River, at the lake's outlet, −25°F. Old Baldy, the steep hill near the lake, plans for −25°F but reads 10°F warmer than downtown at bloom. Williamsburg, 10 miles east of town, plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b), and it gets colder toward the Kalkaska County line: Mabel −26°F, Barker Creek −28°F (MFTC 4a). Bloom is kinder out here; Williamsburg's hillside and Mabel both read 4°F warmer than downtown. We don't have a long-record NOAA station on this side of the bay to check these numbers against. North of Torch Lake, the Petoskey, Charlevoix and Gaylord map covers you.

Interlochen, Kingsley, Fife Lake and the uplands south of town

South of the city the ground climbs onto upland at about 850 to 1,100 feet, and the map splits. The southwest, around Interlochen, Karlin and Grant Township, plans for −16°F to −21°F, but it has no long-record NOAA station, so treat those numbers with a little more caution. The southeast, around Kingsley, Mayfield and Fife Lake, plans mostly for −25°F to −32°F, and the Fife Lake stations show that cold is real.

Interlochen, at 840 feet between Duck Lake and Green Lake, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a) but reads 5°F colder than downtown at bloom, and the low ground around it is the coldest bloom country we found. Platte River Junction reads 8°F colder, the coldest spring reading of any named place we checked, and the Green Lake Township and Long Lake Township bottoms 8°F and 7°F colder. There's almost no bench ground within 3 miles of Interlochen, so find a rise: Pierce Hill, south of Grawn and 210 feet above its floor, plans for −19°F and reads 10°F warmer than downtown, and the bench at Chums Corner −18°F and 3°F warmer.

Kingsley, at 968 feet, plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a, typical winter −10°F) and reads 2°F colder than downtown at bloom. Mayfield plans for −25°F and Summit City −29°F. Devils Elbow, in a creek bottom, reads 6°F colder at bloom, while the Paradise Township hillside, 160 feet above its floor, plans for −28°F but reads 7°F warmer. Fife Lake, at 1,060 feet, plans for −32°F (MFTC 3b, typical winter −13°F), the coldest of any named place we checked, and in the January 1951 cold snap the old Fife Lake 4 SW station read −38°F to the airport's −20°F. Toward Cadillac, see the Big Rapids, Cadillac and Clare map.

Spring frost, bloom and the cherry freezes

In spring the water works the other way. The lake and the bay stay cold, which slows the buds, and near the lakes the last frost tends to come in early May, right around bloom. This is what the NRCS calls the Northwestern Michigan Fruit Belt, and a 1936 Michigan State bulletin found the state's best fruit sites within 3 or 4 miles of Lake Michigan. Our spring layer reads the still-night side of that (drainage, height, nearness to big water), not the bloom delay itself.

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the research farm's median last 32°F frost at April 28 (last 28°F, April 11), with 183 frost-free days. The airport's is May 17 (last 28°F, April 30), one year in ten as late as May 29, with 152 frost-free days. The research center's full-bloom averages for 1983 to 2021 run apricot May 1, Napoleon sweet cherry May 7, plum May 10, Montmorency tart cherry and Redhaven peach May 13, Bartlett pear May 15 and McIntosh May 19. Against those dates, the research farm's median last 32°F comes before all of them, and the airport's comes after the stone fruit and pears.

The bad years come from an early warm-up and then a freeze. In 2002, summer-like warmth pulled trees out of dormancy and freezes in the second half of April cut Michigan's tart cherry crop by 90 percent; Montmorency still bloomed May 17, the official northern Michigan tart cherry bloom date that year, and the Leelanau Enterprise ran the headline "No Cherries." In 2012 the northwest Lower Peninsula had five straight March days in the 80s°F, apricots at the research center bloomed March 23 and Napoleon sweets April 4, and by April 6 Leelanau County had logged six freezing nights, three in the 20s°F. Michigan lost over 90 percent of its cherries. In 2026 it was April 20, near 20°F with wind, and the state's tart crop was estimated at about 46 million pounds against a typical 170 to 200 million. Spring warm-ups have come 7 to 10 days earlier over the past 30 years, but the last killing freeze hasn't moved up to match.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying near 28°F, and at tight cluster, sweet cherry buds lose 10 percent near 26°F and 90 percent near 17°F (Michigan State's critical-temperature chart). Down low it's worse than the forecast: Leelanau berry grower Steve Bardenhagen says a low spot can run 5°F to 10°F below the 5-foot reading on the news. Sweet cherries can lose about half their flowers and still crop, apples need only about 15 percent to set, and open haskap flowers take 19°F. So apricots, peaches and sweet cherries go on the ridges and hills where the spring layer reads warm, tart cherries (they bloom a little later) a step lower, and apples, haskap and bush fruit on the low ground. Through bloom, mow short, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost. A wind machine gains a third to a half of the inversion on a still night and nothing in a windy freeze like 2012 or 2026.

What the weather records say

The coldest readings on file at NOAA stations here: Fife Lake 4 SW −45°F (February 9, 1934 and March 3, 1943), Cherry Capital Airport −37°F (February 17, 1979, in 127 years on file), Old Mission −23°F (February 11, 1899 and February 10, 1912), and Munson −18°F and the research farm −14°F, both February 20, 2015. The airport's average yearly low is −10°F over its full record and about −5°F since the 1995-96 winter. Our planning low is built on those recent winters, so the older records are a reminder this country has done worse. Timing matters as much as depth: a 1972 Michigan study found tart cherry buds dying at about −12°F in November in orchards that came through about −20°F in January.

USDA's 2023 map puts west Traverse City (ZIP 49684) in zone 6a, the east side toward East Bay (49686) in 6b, and Kingsley (49649) in 5b. That map is built on the average year's coldest night, and the airport's −5°F average sits right on the line between 6a and 6b. We plan for the bad night instead: −19°F downtown (MFTC 5a), −15°F at Old Mission (5a), −27°F at Kingsley (4a).

What you can grow around Traverse City

The peninsulas, the Leelanau hills and the hills around town, −14°F to −18°F. Old Mission, Bingham, the hills behind Suttons Bay, Peshawbestown, Omena, Leland, Elk Rapids, Slabtown, Boughey Hill and BOOM, with the stone fruit on the slopes: Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (−35°F, the two hardiest sweets we've found), Stella (−30°F), Montmorency tart cherry (−30°F, the variety this region is built on), Harlayne apricot (−30°F), Contender peach (−30°F; Tom McCamant grows it at Forbidden Fruit Orchard in Paradise, Montana, and it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F), Blushingstar peach (−25°F), D'Anjou pear (−30°F), Stanley plum (−30°F) and Northern Spy apple (−30°F). Rainier (−30°F) is hardy enough, but it cracks where it rains at ripening, and rain at harvest can take out a whole variety overnight here. Bing (−20°F), the tenderest cherry we sell, belongs only on the warmest of this ground, like Bingham and the Old Mission tip.

Town, the bay shores and the southwest lake country, −18°F to −24°F. Downtown and the city neighborhoods, Greilickville, Suttons Bay village, Acme, Lake Leelanau, Cedar, Torch Lake, Interlochen and Williamsburg. Go with trees rated −30°F or colder: Black Gold and Lapins sweet cherries (−35°F), Montmorency and Danube (−35°F) tart cherries, Westcot apricot (−45°F), Siberian C peach (−35°F) with Contender on the rises, Bartlett pear (−35°F), Superior and Italian plums (−35°F), and Honeycrisp (−45°F) and Empire (−35°F) apples. Where this band sits on floor that reads 4°F to 8°F colder than downtown at bloom (Interlochen, the Green Lake and Long Lake bottoms, Solon), skip the apricots, peaches and pears and lean on apples, tart cherries and bush fruit.

Williamsburg's back country, Kingsley, Mayfield and Fife Lake, −24°F to −33°F. Mabel, Barker Creek, Torch River, Kingsley, Mayfield, Paradise and Union townships, Summit City and Fife Lake. Plan on trees rated −35°F or colder: Haralson (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F), Summercrisp pear (−40°F), Toka plum (−45°F), Evan's Bali (−45°F) and Meteor (−40°F) tart cherries, Westcot apricot (−45°F), Siberian C peach (−35°F), and if you only plant one tree, Kerr (−50°F) or Trailman (−60°F) applecrab. Montmorency (−30°F) clears Kingsley's −27°F but not Fife Lake's −32°F; Lapins (−35°F) clears both. We taper water from mid-August in zone 4 and colder so trees harden off before the first frost.

Bush fruit, anywhere. Honeyberry (−50°F), Montana Black Currant (−50°F), Red Lake currant (−40°F), Nanking Cherry (−50°F) and Boyne raspberry (−40°F) clear every spot on this map. Red Lake and Montana Black Currant fruited well for us in 2026 after their flower buds saw about 22°F, so currants and honeyberries are the crop for the frosty bottoms. Honeoye strawberries (−50°F) belong on a slope, since strawberries take the worst of a frost night at ground level. Most tree fruit needs a pollenizer, a second variety blooming at the same time; our pollination maps show which ones pair up, and the cold hardiness calculator runs the same kind of planning low for any address.

Soils run from well-drained sandy loams to Leelanau clay subsoils, so test first: dig 2 feet, fill it, let it drain and fill it again; if the second fill takes more than 10 hours to drain, pick another spot or build it up. Heavy snow usually keeps the ground from freezing hard, but rabbits, mice and voles girdle trunks under it, so guard them, and plan on deer. For cherries, the pests that matter are spotted wing drosophila, which showed up around 2012 and hit millions of pounds of Leelanau tarts in 2015, and rain at harvest, which cracks fruit.

Fruit history here

The first commercial orchard went in on the Old Mission Peninsula in 1893, tart cherries had passed every other crop by the early 1900s, and the National Cherry Festival grew out of a spring "Blessing of the Blossoms" in the mid-1920s. Today the five counties around Traverse City grow about 40 percent of the country's tart cherries, mostly Montmorency. In 1994 Peninsula Township voters passed the Midwest's first levy to buy development rights on farmland, and about 6,000 of the township's 18,000 acres are now protected.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Traverse City, Michigan?

USDA's 2023 map puts west Traverse City in zone 6a and the east side toward East Bay in 6b, but that's built on an average winter's coldest night. On the bad night we plan for, downtown is −19°F, MFTC zone 5a. Bingham plans for −14°F (5b), Kingsley −27°F (4a) and Fife Lake −32°F (3b).

When is the last frost in Traverse City?

At Cherry Capital Airport the 1991 to 2020 median last 32°F frost is May 17, and one year in ten it comes as late as May 29. Munson, on the west side, runs May 13, and the research farm on the Leelanau upland April 28.

When do cherry trees bloom in Traverse City?

At the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center, Napoleon sweet cherries averaged full bloom May 7 and Montmorency tarts May 13 over 1983 to 2021. The earliest were April 4 and April 20 in 2012, the latest May 26 and May 28 in 1997.

Where are the frost pockets around Traverse City?

On a still bloom night the coldest named places we checked are the low ground southwest of town: Platte River Junction and the Green Lake Township bottom read 8°F colder than downtown and Interlochen 5°F colder. In town, the Kids Creek valley and the south-side flats read 1°F to 2°F colder, while Hickory Hill reads 13°F warmer.

Why is the Old Mission Peninsula so good for cherries?

It's never more than about 3 miles wide, with water on both sides and a central ridge that drains cold air off the orchards. On our map the ridge reads 7°F to 9°F warmer than downtown on a still bloom night, and the 1987 rule creating its wine appellation called it virtually frost-free.

Does Grand Traverse Bay still freeze over?

Less often. It froze in 84 percent of winters before 1980 and in about 40 percent since. Recent freezes came in 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and on February 3, 2026, and they now usually last 20 to 40 days.

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.