North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>]

Steve, dieback is often to the roots and so grafted trees throw a wrench in 
your plan.  I once had a kaki die back but it somehow budded less than 1" 
from the graft and grew back, so I was only an inch from disaster on that 
one.  And, when trees do grow back from roots they can take several years to 
get back to fruiting form.  Figs and poms are on their own roots usually so 
they can work with your plan.  Don't get Violette de Bordeaux or other less 
hardy figs, that one dies back every few years for me.  Kazake may be hard to 
bring to ripeness in your shorter season.  I am not growing mulberries so 
can't comment on them.

Scott

On Dec 3, 2011, at 11:22 AM, Steven Covacci wrote:

> Group:
> 
> 
> This thread concerns growing the following sub-tropicals in zone 6
> 
> 
> 
> pomegranate (cv. 'Kazake'), the most cold-hardy variety that I know of
> black mulberry - Morus nigra (cv. 'Black Beauty')
> figs: F. carica & F. afghanistanica  
> Asian persimmon 
> 
> If you prune the trees for the first years so that the frame is of a larger 
> diameter, and protect the trees during the first years, will the above 
> trees survive the occasional -7 F or worse day should it come once out of 
> many years?
> 
> 
> I suspect that the rootsytem, base of the trunk, and beginning of the 
> primary limbs would survive, and you'd quickly have your trees back to 
> their previous form and size.
> 
> 
> So, in-other-words, black mulberry (M. nigra) might be hardy to -0F in 
> nursery terms, but if you carefully attend to its winter protection for the 
> first 5 or so years, it can go from a zone 7 plant to a zone 6 plant being 
> only subject to damage to wood under a certain caliper diameter, which is 
> not like loosing the tree and may even help keep the tree small.
> 
> 
> There is an American persimmon by the beach that I know of that is pruned, 
> eternally, to a large rounded bush form and size 9' x 9' and will probably 
> stay that way until it dies thank's to the salt spray.  I think it would be 
> great to have a Morus nigra with a large diameter trunk and limbs pruned by 
> winter to 15' by annual die back.
> 
> 
> Btw, the cultivar 'Black Beauty' ... I looked up the details in plant 
> patent - supposedly a dwarf - yet how do they know?  If hasn't been around 
> long enough and the seed parent's age and conditions of cultivation are 
> likely unknown to the collection, I'd suspect.
> 
> 
> Steve; NJ
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