Fruit Trees for Worthington, Pipestone and the Buffalo Ridge, Minnesota

On December 24, 1983, in the coldest December in Minnesota's statewide record, the NOAA station at Pipestone read −44°F. Lake Wilson, 19 miles away at almost the same elevation, read −28°F, and both Worthington stations −26°F. That 18°F gap is where choosing fruit trees for Worthington, Pipestone and the Buffalo Ridge starts. Up on the Coteau des Prairies there's no big valley to blame; the cold comes down to small things, like a creek bottom, a 70 ft rise, or a station sitting below the rest of town.

The map covers the southwest Minnesota corner of the coteau: Nobles, Pipestone, Rock and Murray counties from Holland and Lake Shetek south to the Iowa line, with Worthington, Pipestone, Luverne, Slayton, Adrian, Edgerton, Jasper, Fulda, Lake Wilson and the villages between. 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 around, not a 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, so theirs read warmer) and the spring layer: how much warmer or colder a spot runs than Worthington on a still, clear night at bloom.

Worthington, the reference town, plans for −29°F (zone 4a) with a typical winter of −17°F. The middle of the growing ground plans for −31°F (zone 3b), and nine tenths of it falls between −34°F and −29°F. The east is the warm end (Worthington, Slayton, Reading and Org at −29°F), the west the cold end (Pipestone at −33°F, Ihlen and Jasper at −35°F, zone 3b by a hair). The spring layer follows height above the nearest creek bottom, from 4°F colder than Worthington at Ash Creek to about 3°F warmer at Diamond Corner, Hardwick and Dovray.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is the top of the Coteau des Prairies, the high glacial upland shared by southwestern Minnesota, southeastern South Dakota and northwestern Iowa. Buffalo Ridge runs through it as the Mississippi-Missouri divide, topping out at 1,995 ft in northern Pipestone County on up to 800 ft of glacial till over red Sioux Quartzite. Inside the map the towns run from 1,827 ft at Woodstock down to 1,395 ft at Ash Creek, and a fan of creeks carves the land: the Rock River south past Holland, Edgerton and Luverne, Split Rock, Beaver and Kanaranzi creeks in the west, and in the east the Des Moines headwaters at Lake Shetek and the Ocheyedan, which starts at Ocheda Lake just south of Worthington.

On a clear, calm night every field radiates its heat to the sky, and the chilled air slides into those creek lanes and settles in the bottoms. Ash Creek, on the Rock River only 10 ft above its floor, plans for −33°F; Ihlen, in the Split Rock Creek bottom, −35°F. The station records agree: on February 28, 1962 the Luverne station on the Rock River read −36°F while Worthington read −23°F, and on January 19, 1970 it was Luverne −37°F, Worthington −27°F.

Pipestone is the odd one, and the main reason the west runs cold. Its station holds the area's coldest reading and has run a median 3°F colder each winter than Lake Wilson, at nearly the same elevation, and than Luverne and the old Slayton 9 SW station, which sit lower. Nobody has documented exactly where it sits, but at 1,658 ft it's about 75 ft below the town center. Pipestone's airport station, up at 1,736 ft, has averaged a yearly low near −19°F in recent winters to the lower station's −22°F, and since 1995 its coldest is −29°F against the lower station's −34°F. Our best reading is a still-night hollow on a high upland, and in 1983 it had 10 to 30 inches of snow on the ground statewide to work with. The map leans on the nearest stations, so the west leans on Pipestone's records.

Height is the thermal belt out here, and it doesn't take much. Places 70 to 100 ft above their nearest low ground (Diamond Corner, Hardwick, Dovray, Hadley, Pipestone's town center) read about 3°F warmer than Worthington at bloom; places within 20 ft of their floor (Chandler, Wirock, Lime Creek, Avoca, Ash Creek) read 2°F to 4°F colder. Michigan's old orchard surveys found ridges only 25 to 30 ft above the plain can be nearly as frost-free as high hills, and the University of Minnesota's fruit people say even 20 ft of drop within an orchard can make a difference.

The kind of night matters. The 1983 split looks like a still night over deep snow, the kind that builds a cold pool. When deep arctic air fills the region the edges shrink: on January 3, 2010 the six stations reporting all read −31°F to −33°F, and on January 31, 2019 the high Lake Wilson station was coldest at −32°F while Rock Rapids, low on the Rock River in Iowa, read −25°F. The wind matters too. The DNR calls the inner coteau's winds constant, high and drying, and more than 1,000 turbines stood on and around Buffalo Ridge by 2022. Wind keeps a crest from pooling cold, but it scours the snow off the roots.

Water and towns do less than you'd think. Every lake here is shallow (Lake Okabena averages 6.9 ft deep; Lake Shetek is 10 ft at most and freezes solid about one winter in seven), and a lake only shelters its shore while it's free of ice. Town heat helps a little: Worthington's and Slayton's centers plan for −29°F against −30°F on the floor around them. Why the Worthington stations have been mild in so many outbreaks (18°F warmer than Pipestone in 1983) nobody has worked out; the map takes the records as they are. Wet prairie grew only along the narrow stream margins, the low, grassy bottoms that frost first.

Worthington, Lake Okabena and the Nobles County upland

Worthington wraps around Lake Okabena, 776 acres of spring-fed glacial lake entirely inside city limits at 1,570 ft. About 60 percent of the shore is public, from Chautauqua Park and Centennial Park around to Slater Park, Sailboard Beach and Cherry Point. What Worthington has is town heat on flat upland; the map finds no bench ground within 3 miles of downtown.

Downtown plans for −29°F (zone 4a), typical winter −17°F. The floor within 3 miles plans for −30°F, its warmest tenth −29°F and coldest −31°F. Sungold Heights, on the northeast side, plans for −29°F, 1°F colder at bloom. Ocheda Orchard, about 4 miles south, plans for −29°F but reads 3°F colder at bloom. Org, Reading and Saint Kilian plan for −29°F, Rushmore, Bigelow, Wilmont and Lismore −30°F, Ransom −31°F, and Adrian, to the west, −32°F (zone 3b) with its benches at −30°F.

In town plant to −29°F; in the country plan for −31°F. Ocheda Orchard's list makes the case: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Haralson (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F), Sweet Sixteen (−40°F), Cortland (−40°F) and Snowsweet® (−45°F) all grow there. Lapins sweet cherry (−35°F) fits; a grower of ours in Cowley, Wyoming saw no damage on it at −33°F. Contender peach (−30°F), a UMN pick for southern Minnesota, fits a town lot; it's the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F, and Tom McCamant grows it at Forbidden Fruit in Paradise, Montana. In the country, Siberian C (−35°F) is safer.

Luverne, Blue Mounds and the Rock River

Luverne, the Rock County seat, sits on the Rock River at about 1,470 ft. A few miles north, Blue Mounds State Park's Sioux Quartzite escarpment rises up to 100 ft, with a 90 ft cliff line overlooking town, and "The Rock," the outcrop that named the river and county, stands about 3 miles north. The mound's soil was too thin and bouldery to plow, which is why it's still prairie. Cold drains off that high ground on a still night and collects on the river bottom.

The town center sits on a toe slope 30 ft above its floor and plans for −32°F (zone 3b), typical winter −20°F, about even with Worthington at bloom. The floor within 3 miles plans for −34°F, the benches −31°F. Downriver, Ash Creek plans for −33°F and reads 4°F colder than Worthington at bloom, the worst spring reading of any named place here. Hills, 60 ft above its floor, plans for −32°F and reads 2°F warmer; Beaver Creek plans for −33°F with benches nearby at −31°F; Steen, Magnolia, Kanaranzi and Ellsworth plan for −31°F.

On the benches at −31°F the middle-ground list below works, with Westcot apricot (−45°F) on the highest ground. On the river bottom, plan for −34°F, stick to the coldest list, and skip apricots and peaches. On the quartzite itself roots have little room and dry out fast; look for deep loess.

Pipestone, the National Monument and the ridge crest

Pipestone stands on higher ground than much of the country to its north and east, the town center at 1,733 ft, about 70 ft above its local floor. Just north of town Pipestone Creek cuts through red quartzite cliffs at Pipestone National Monument, where catlinite, the pipestone itself, is quarried.

The center plans for −33°F (zone 3b), typical winter −21°F, and reads 3°F warmer than Worthington at bloom. The floor within 3 miles plans for −34°F, the benches −31°F. The station tells a harder spring story: median last 32°F May 11, 146 frost-free days (the fewest of any station here), and a last frost as late as May 24 in 1 year in 10. Both are right. The spring layer reads the town's higher ground, which drains; the station, about 75 ft lower, most likely sits where cold settles. If your lot is low, toward the creek, go by the station.

North and east is the ridge crest. Woodstock, the highest town on the map, sits on a bench 110 ft above its floor and plans for −32°F, while its floor plans for −34°F. Diamond Corner, 100 ft above its floor, plans for −32°F and reads 3°F warmer than Worthington at bloom. Holland and Cazenovia plan for −34°F, Hatfield −33°F. The crest dodges radiation frost but loses its snow to the wind. Plant a windbreak at least as tall as the trees on the windward side, never across the downhill side, where it dams cold air into the orchard.

A Pipestone lot at −33°F takes the middle list below, a low lot toward the creek the coldest one, with Kerr or Trailman applecrab first (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these) and the Pipestone plum with Toka. Westcot apricot belongs on the town's higher ground. Lapins, Siberian C and Superior plum (−35°F) clear the town's number by 2°F and the floor's by a degree.

Edgerton, Jasper and Split Rock Creek

Edgerton, along the Rock River 20 ft above its floor, plans for −33°F (zone 3b), 1°F colder than Worthington at bloom, with benches at −31°F. Jasper, named for the jasper deposits mined nearby, is the coldest town on the map: −35°F (zone 3b by a hair), on a toe slope 10 ft above a floor that plans for −35°F, with benches at −32°F. Jasper Sunrise Village, 60 ft higher, plans for −34°F and reads 3°F warmer than Worthington at bloom, which shows what 60 ft does in spring.

Ihlen sits in the Split Rock Creek bottom near the state park, where a 1938 WPA dam of Sioux Quartzite holds back the lake. It plans for −35°F (zone 3b by a hair), 1°F colder at bloom, with benches at −32°F. The creek runs 55 miles from here to east of Sioux Falls; over the line in South Dakota, the Sioux Falls and Big Sioux map covers you. Trosky plans for −34°F, Hardwick (80 ft above its floor) −33°F and 3°F warmer at bloom, Leota and Kenneth −31°F. In the Jasper and Ihlen bottoms plant only what has come through −40°F or colder; on the benches at −32°F, Lapins, Siberian C and Superior come back into play.

Slayton, Lake Wilson and the Murray County lakes

Murray County is low rolling hills dotted with lakes and ponds, with a Buffalo Ridge promontory (1,920 ft) in Chanarambie Township rising a few hundred feet above nearby valleys. Northeast of this map the coteau drops off its escarpment toward Marshall, where the Marshall, Montevideo and upper Minnesota River map picks up.

Slayton, the county seat, 50 ft above its floor, plans for −29°F like Worthington (zone 4a), typical winter −17°F, and reads 2°F warmer at bloom. Hadley, 80 ft above its floor, plans for −29°F and reads 3°F warmer. Lake Wilson, whose lake fills the east part of town, plans for −33°F on its creek bottom, 2°F colder at bloom, with benches at −31°F; its station was the coldest here in the January 2010 and 2019 outbreaks. Chandler sits right on its floor at −33°F, 3°F colder at bloom, with benches within 3 miles at −30°F, so getting up out of town pays.

Currie, which grew from an 1860s flour mill near Lake Shetek's outlet, plans for −32°F. Shetek is the largest lake in southwest Minnesota at 3,596 acres, but it freezes over, so it does little for winter cold. Fulda, on the north end of Fulda Lake, plans for −30°F (zone 4a by a hair), about even with Worthington at bloom. Avoca, Wirock, Pfingsten and Iona plan for −30°F and Lime Creek −32°F, all but Iona 2°F colder at bloom. Dovray, 80 ft above its floor, plans for −30°F and reads 3°F warmer. Slayton, Hadley and Fulda take the first list below; Lake Wilson, Chandler and Lime Creek the middle one.

Spring frost and bloom on the coteau

The spring layer follows the same drainage as winter, only sharper, because it's the still-night pattern alone, with a 7°F spread from Ash Creek to Diamond Corner. UMN puts the most tender point for open apple blossoms at about 28°F, with about 10 percent damage there and a few degrees more killing up to 90 percent.

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at May 2 at the Worthington airport, May 5 at Worthington 2 NNE, May 9 at Lake Wilson and May 11 at Pipestone, and the last 28°F at April 18 in Worthington and April 27 to 28 at Lake Wilson and Pipestone. In a late year (1 in 10) the last 32°F comes May 16 to May 20 at Worthington and May 24 at Pipestone. The frost-free season runs 146 to 152 days, more than the 135 days the University of Vermont treats as short-season country, so late apples ripen: Ocheda Orchard picks Haralson about September 15 and Keepsake about October 15.

No documented freeze has wiped out a crop on this map in particular, but statewide ones would have reached it. On April 9 and 10, 2012, a freeze hit Minnesota apples blooming unusually early; low-lying orchards lost their early bloomers while ridge-top orchards fared better. In spring 2026 two freezes left UMN's research center near Chaska with nearly 80 percent blossom damage. It was rough at home in Montana too: 15°F at Ed Schultz's in Gallatin Gateway during bloom and no fruit at all.

So put the earliest bloomers (apricots, then plums, sweet cherries and peaches) on the rises that read warmer than Worthington, off the creek bottoms and away from a south wall, where UMN says trapped heat pushes bloom early. Apples can go lower and honeyberries lower still, since fully open haskap flowers take 19°F. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and late bloomers like Haralson help. Before a frost night, mow short, don't till, and water a day or two ahead. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 oz per square yard buys about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F by Alabama Extension's numbers.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records here run back to the 1890s. The coldest reading on any station in the map is Pipestone's −44°F on December 24, 1983, in a Christmas week that averaged −17°F statewide. Just over the Iowa line, Rock Rapids and Sibley both hit −40°F on January 12, 1912. The old Worthington station bottomed out at −37°F on January 10, 1918, Luverne at −37°F on January 19, 1970, Lake Wilson at −33°F on January 2 and 3, 2010, and both Worthington stations at −31°F on January 2, 2010.

The average yearly low runs about −20°F at the Worthington airport and −24°F at Pipestone and Luverne. We haven't checked USDA's 2023 map town by town, but USDA builds its zones on that kind of average, and −20°F to −24°F lands at about USDA zone 4b. Our planning lows run −29°F to −35°F, zones 4a to 3a, because ours is built on the bad night you plan for.

What you can grow on the Buffalo Ridge

UMN says hybrid plums and apricots need two different varieties within about 100 yards, and wild American plums can pollenize hybrid plums; our pollination maps show which kinds bloom together.

Worthington, Slayton and the eastern upland: −29°F to −30°F

Keep the ones rated −30°F for town or your warmest ground. Apples: Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!®, Sweet Sixteen, Cortland and Liberty (−30°F). Pears: Summercrisp (−40°F), Clara Frijs (−35°F) and Harrow Sweet (−30°F). Plums: Pipestone (−40°F), La Crescent (−40°F), Black Ice (−40°F), Toka (−45°F) to pollenize them, and Stanley (−30°F), UMN's best European plum for southern Minnesota. Cherries: Evan's Bali (−45°F), Lapins and Rainier (−30°F). Apricots: Westcot (−45°F) and Sungold (−40°F). Peaches: Contender and Siberian C, with Blushingstar (−25°F) worth a try on a sheltered town lot; it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage.

The middle ground and the benches: −31°F to −33°F

Adrian, Luverne, Pipestone, Edgerton, Lake Wilson, Chandler, Currie, Woodstock, Hills and the benches around Jasper and Ihlen. Apples: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Snowsweet®, Frostbite (−45°F), Zestar!® and Empire (−35°F). Pears: Summercrisp, Ure (−40°F) and Bartlett (−35°F). Plums: Pipestone, Underwood (−40°F), Toka, Superior and Mount Royal (−40°F), a self-fruitful European plum UMN rates very good. Cherries: Evan's Bali, Meteor (−40°F), Lapins and Gold (−35°F). Apricots: Westcot and Sungold, on the rises only. Peaches: Siberian C, with Contender worth a try on your warmest bench.

Jasper, Ihlen and the creek bottoms: −34°F to −35°F

Apples: Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite, Wealthy (−50°F), Zestar!® and Sweet Sixteen, plus Kerr and Centennial applecrabs (−50°F); Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F. Pears: Summercrisp, Ure and Krasnobokaya (−50°F). Plums: Pipestone, Toka, Underwood and Brookred (−50°F). Cherries: Evan's Bali, Meteor and Nanking cherry (−50°F). Apricots: Westcot and Morden 604 (−45°F), only on high ground. Worth a try on your best ground: Lapins, Siberian C and Superior (−35°F).

Berries clear every number on the map: honeyberry (−50°F), Montana Black Currant (−50°F), Red Lake currant (−40°F), aronia (−50°F) and Boyne raspberry (−40°F). They suit a creek-bottom yard where frost would take a plum's bloom.

Roots are the weak link. UMN's apple bulletin says dwarfing rootstocks are injured when the root zone drops to 18°F to 22°F, and on a windswept crest the snow that would protect them blows off; at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Bud 118 has seen near −50°F under snow with no rootstock damage. Hold the snow and mulch. Plant on a slope, not on a windswept hilltop and not in the creek bottom; Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade. Use drip, and taper water from mid-August so trees harden off. Local trouble: drying wind, drought, thin soil over quartzite, tornadoes and hail, late-winter sunscald on the southwest side of trunks, black knot and plum curculio.

Fruit history here

Worthington is the home of a commercial apple. Donald Nystrom planted Ocheda Orchard, about 4 miles south of town, in 1965, mostly with standard-size University of Minnesota varieties; his son Chuck and Myrna Nystrom now run about 5,000 dwarf trees on 30 acres, many from Chuck's own breeding. In the early 1990s Chuck found a seedling there believed to be from Honeycrisp, pollen parent unknown (bees made the cross, hence the name). That's B51, sold as SugarBee; it reached market in 2016, is licensed to growers in Washington, and stores much longer than Honeycrisp in controlled-atmosphere storage.

A separate, fourth-generation Nystrom family orchard on Quine Avenue harvests apple trees more than 100 years old, about as good a field test of hardy apples on the coteau as you'll find. The Pipestone plum is a University of Minnesota release from 1942: large red fruit with sweet, juicy yellow flesh, ripe in late August, on a very hardy tree suited to drier country. We haven't found why it got the name.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Worthington, Minnesota?

Our map has Worthington's center planning for −29°F, MFTC zone 4a, with a typical winter of −17°F. On the edge of town and in the country plan for −31°F; both Worthington stations read −31°F on January 2, 2010. USDA's zones are based on an average winter, and the average yearly low here lands at about USDA zone 4b; ours is based on the bad night you plan for.

When is the last frost in Worthington, MN?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at May 2 at the Worthington airport and May 5 at Worthington 2 NNE, with the last 28°F around April 18. In 1 year in 10 it comes as late as May 16 to May 20. Pipestone runs later: May 11, and May 24 in a late year.

Why is Pipestone so cold?

The Pipestone station runs a median 3°F colder each winter than Lake Wilson, Luverne and the old Slayton 9 SW station and holds the area's coldest reading, −44°F on December 24, 1983. It sits about 75 ft below the town center, and since 1995 Pipestone's airport station, up on the upland, has bottomed out at −29°F against the lower station's −34°F. Our best reading is a still-night cold hollow on high ground.

Can you grow apples in southwest Minnesota?

Yes. Ocheda Orchard near Worthington has grown apples since 1965, and the Nystrom orchard on Quine Avenue harvests trees more than 100 years old. Haralson, Honeycrisp, Frostbite and Wealthy have all come through −45°F or colder, past the coldest number on this map.

What plums grow in southwest Minnesota?

UMN rates Underwood, Pipestone, La Crescent and Black Ice among its better hybrid plums, with Toka as a pollenizer, and Mount Royal very good among the European kinds. All have come through −40°F or colder, so they fit anywhere on this map. Plant two different hybrid plums within about 100 yards, on a rise rather than a creek bottom.

Where are the frost pockets around Pipestone and Luverne?

The creek and river bottoms. Ash Creek on the Rock River plans for −33°F and reads 4°F colder than Worthington at bloom; Jasper and Ihlen plan for −35°F; Luverne's floor plans for −34°F against −31°F on the benches above it. The Pipestone station, below the town center, has the latest last frost of any station here, May 11.

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.