To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Illinois Everbearing Mulberry zone 4 hardy?
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:41:44 -0500
At 09:04 AM 6/11/2007, mIEKAL wrote:
Hector: I'm curious if you think Ill Everbearing is a zone 4 tree?
If it gets damaged by late freezes down there...
mIEKAL,
The 'Easter Big Freeze Disaster' we experienced down here this year
was a really freak occurrence - and I hope we never see a repeat
performance. Not at all typical of spring frosts/freezes - even the
native oaks, hickories, mulberries - and even butternuts, which are
supposed to be zone 2 hardy - were severely damaged.
We'd had several weeks of unseasonably warm weather in March - with
daytime temps into the 80s the last week or so of March, followed by
4-5 consecutive nights of temps into the low 20s.
Almost the only deciduous trees that weren't significantly damaged
were the black walnuts, which were still fully dormant.
Is IE zone 4 hardy? I don't know, but here in hot zone 6, it is as
Hector described - a heavy producer of large, exceptionally tasty
berries, and mine typically fruits from mid-June through t he end of July.