where are you vlad .... z5 is half the US and who knows how much of the rest of the world ...

in the mean time.. what media are you using ... are they indoors??? ... and how many do you have ...

where did you get the seed... if it was locally sourced.. then they should survive ...

a zone 5 plant.. in z5 .... is not borderline .... i see no real difference between A and B ....

ken

I am in Montreal, Canada

So far they are in a homegrown mix, perlite+compost+peat, indoors with grow lights.

I have a ton, maybe 30 seedlings or more. A bit crowded thus far, already culled once, will do it twice soon enough.

Seed is from UK. I found locally white mullberries, but their fruits are more boring.

Bump

Thanks a bunch.

I planted for first time in autumn last year, a bunch of yews. They were really cheap. Fingers crossed :)

As for the mulberry, you suggest growing them this year in a container, shelter inside next winter and only plant outside in spring 2019?

' no plant will develop roots going into dormancy -- unless you live in zone 10!'

Autumn is a perfectly fine planting time in many cooler zones than 10, though perhaps not Montreal.

Vlad, even if you don't plant your mulberries in the ground in Autumn 2018 you should definitely not keep them indoors over the winter. Find a sheltered spot near the house where you can bury them in leaves or put them in a cool shed or outbuilding. They need to be dormant in Winter and indoors they won't be.

Flora, my point about planting in fall in cooler zones is simply that there is no advantage compared with planting the following spring (since the roots won't be growing at all over the winter). Having the plant sitting in a hole for six months before it is in any way established can be risky, especially under a continental climate regime.

I agree with Flora about letting them have at least some dormant period (although they do grow fine in the subtropics and high altitude tropics), and I would recommend the cool shed, garage, etc.

Here in zone 6/7, it is much better to plant most trees in the fall as roots will grow as long as the ground is not frozen solid down at the root zone. As Floral said, that may not be the case in a zone 5 area (where the ground probably is frozen solid now that it's winter), but one certainly doesn't have to be in zone 10 to benefit from fall planting of most woody plants!

Planting a Tree or Shrub

Thanks for the great info.
I was interested more specifically about the minimum size of tree seedlings so they have a chance to survive the winter.

One or two season's growth in pots with a ton of coddling? :)

A ton of coddling isn’t necessary. Indeed it could be counter productive. You can plant your seedling out as soon as you think it is big enough not to get run over by the mower. If you have rabbits or deer protect it well and keep it clear of weeds.

^^ Precisely :-) If large enough, I'd plant them out this spring. Otherwise, wait until late summer/early fall - past the heat of the summer season. And no coddling :-)

btw, fall is the time of year when the roots of most woody plants are in a period of active growth and elongation and will continue to do so until the soil is too cold to support that growth. And since soil temperatures are much slower to cool down than air temps, it is usually well into late fall before that happens. Woody plants planted in fall are half way established before the heat of late spring or early summer hits.........that's why fall planting is so highly recommended. NOT to clear inventory :-)