Does anyone grow these varieties in zone 8B or colder? can you tell me what state you are in and what’s USDA growing zone? In ground or in pot? photos help too! I grew these varieties ( in pots outside/ no greenhouse) and we had a rather mild winter in WA state 8B and they all died. While my Illinois Everbearing was fine. I’m trying to gather information on hardy these varieties are. If I should try replacing them to continue my trials or give up.
aussie / Australian
french Syrian
lebanese heart
twainese four seasons
thai dwarf
maui
world’s best (2 died 1 alive)
And, on another note:
I read gerardi Dwarf is popcorn disease resistance? what other mulberries are popcorn disease resistance? i dont have any issue of popcorn in my area but never know like to be prepared.
Issue with mulberries is no one seems to agree on hardiness. Some rate dwarf overbearing to zone 5 and others rate it to zone 7 only. Some rate Girardi to zone 5 and others rate it to zone 6. They are one of those plants no one can decide on.
@Seattlefigs , Gerardi does well for me in Zone 4. “Gerald” as I call him is 8 years old, 12 feet tall, 8 feet wide and produces loads of yummy berries. It is a real bugger to put a net on him but the only way to get any fruit. I don’t know a thing about Mulberries so I can’t speak to the popcorn disease. He came from Burnt Ridge Nursery in Onalaska, Oregon…
yeah i figure there hasnt been an accurate info on the hardiness but for example i rather nurseries error for example
dwarf everbearing zone 7-9 (however some locations can 5-9 i rather they tell me a safe zone)
wow very nice to hard its very cold hardy popcorn disease i heard is only in certain states so that why i havent personally encounter any but i just dont want to be surprise one day it comes to my state.
Are you referring to this most recent winter? Because even though it was otherwise fairly mild, the late December freeze killed a lot of my zone-pushing stuff this year, or at least badly damaged them. This is what that freeze was like in my yard in West Seattle:
but what varieties? i think the ones i gave you were more hardy than these. i was testing these to see how well they will fruit, but the real test is how they will live through our winter unprotected.
No, those were still 8B temperatures (low of 16°F for my yard), but many parts of 8B Western WA were below 15° during that freeze event. I think the bigger issue was the duration of cold and then the extra cold punch right at the end. Notice that the high temperatures on the 26th and 27th were in the mid-20s, and then the 28th and 29th barely went above freezing, so that’s a long stretch of below freezing for us.
Northrop and Riverview survived -40f with little damage. good to know about Gerardi. cant wait until they fruit. tried red mulberry but it died. have a grafted illni. everbearing coming soon. hope it likes it here.
World’s Best had some dieback, particularily on thinner branches (thinner than a pencil). Anything thicker did fine. This was the first (real) winter I didn’t protect it at all and it did well.
Kokuso (Burnt Ridge) has survived here without protection of any kind for almost a decade.
Illinios Everbearing (BR again) survives fine without protection here. Same with Beautiful Day (BR again).
My Pakistan, Black Beauty and supposedly hardy nigra are all potted and were brought inside and stored dormant all winter. They all did fine as well.
I’m an example of record cold for zone 8 A/B, northern Puget Sound … low of 7F.
Two-year-old Pakistan, Oscar, Kokusa, and Gerardi all survived in ground.
Of those 4 varieties, Kokusa looks the best and even has one proto berry. However, looks like it needs an infusion of iron. Growing in a 2 foot raised bed along with strawberries.
Often caused by too much water, I see this a lot in early spring. The roots are too cold and wet to take up nutrition. It’s no big deal and should recover completely. Not really a reflection of nutrients in the soil.
Yes I agree…cool weather will do that. My green beans and squash look similar. Gardeners are fretting that if things don’t warm up, it’ll be a rush to the finish line with corn!
