Brett Crawford

OOOH, you're lucky!  I used to take the kids to the Morden Apple festival which always included a trip to the research station.  You could go for a tour and they gave everyone a shopping bag to fill with whatever fruit you found on the tour.  That's what got me into growing fruit trees rather than just vegetable gardening.  In fact my next plant I'm planning for 2027 is the Emerald Ice white grape, also known as the Morden  Concord white Grape.  Supposed to be viable to zone 3b, has few (mostly edible) seeds and are large like a store bought grape.  Would get it this year, but I have too many projects on the go for this year already.

This quote is from the Montana Fruit Tree Company:  "We’ve combed through a fair bit of info on Trader Mulberry by Dr. Jim Walla, who released this variety in 2015. Trader is perhaps the most cold-hardy named variety (some debate with Northrop), as the original tree survived -44°F near Oriska, North Dakota."

The Northrop mulberry, supposedly, can withstand -50° F (-45.6°C), but is only rated as zone 3.  Sounds more like zone 2 to me

Ashley, I think you're right about them being clones.  I have noticed that lots of different nurseries have different zone listings for the same plants.  My Lapins cherry for instance is listed, generally as zone 4, but I have seen it listed as zone 5 and one nursery in the states says it is zone 3.  In any case, I have tracked our weather locally and over the last ten years I seem to be in a zone 4 enclave rather than the zone 3b that is the official designation.  Then again, any given winter we might just get full fledged -40° C week of weather, so who knows.

Yes Derek, ideally arctic kiwi should have full morning sun and shade during the hot afternoon.  Mine are actually backwards to this, being in full shade in the morning until around 1100.  And they are doing very well.  They should do okay in full sun, just not as well.  In fact, when planted as an ornamental the males variegation is brighter with the more sun they get.  I would think the move was probably too traumatic for them.

I see the last post was a while ago, but maybe we can get more commenting going on, as this is a great topic for us to exchange info.

to that end, for anyone interested here are the various fruits I've had luck with, or no luck with:

Rescue crab apple 2008 does spectacular production every year.
Planted a Sweet Sixteen (Whiffletree) whip 3 years ago, still waiting for fruit but it's doing well
Honeycrisp Dwarf (impulse buy from sage Garden Winnipeg) potted, 3 years ago.  Produced 10 delicious apples last season!
River grape (wild Manitoba) was here before I bought my place almost 20 years ago.  I have horribly abused this grape, but it keeps coming back and                                       producing copious quantities of grapes.
Somerset Grape (Green Barn - a company I DO NOT recommend) did not do well and died in year 3
Somerset Grape x 2 (Vignes Chez Soi)  Both did great, planted in 2022 and I had close to two 4 litre pails of sweet seedless grapes in 2025
A Canada Plum from a local nursery (Secords) and also a plum cherry.  The plum Cherry was productive but died after about 14 years.  the Canada Plum is still going strong, producing lots of fruit every year
Arctic Kiwi {Actinidia kolomikta}  (Ron Paul Garden Centre in Winnipeg)  I bought two female and one male in 2022, but they gave me one female and two males.  The female fruited in 2024, just a handful, but I got at least a full litre of fruit in 2025.
Black Ice Plum (impulse buy from Canadian Tire)  Anything exposed above the snow line dies each year, so I'll be removing it this year.
Toka Plum (Whiffletree) 2023, had a nice first taste of the fruit in 2025
Elderberry York (Nutcracker) 2023 and Bob Gordon (Whiffletree) 2023.  Flowered and fruited very well in 2024 and 2025.
Apricot, wescott (Nutcracker)  Was doing well until animal damage killed it decided to replace it.
Apricot Precious (Whiffletree) 2023 Was supposed to be on Mustang rootstock (semi dwarf), but after two years it's still only 5 feet high.  Tried to contact Whiffletree, but they never got back to me.  I later found out that this tree typically only gets to about 5 feet high.  I hope it flowers this year!
Apricot Wescot (Whiffletree) 2025 (to replace the damaged one) and this winter my new puppy decided to chew the living hell out of this tree.  Why!?!
Lapins Sweet cherry (Whiffletree) 2025.  This one is a long shot, but there have been several reports of these cherries surviving zone 3 weather so I'm giving it a try.
I also have a whole bushline of Evans cherry, which reproduce themselves a lot!  Plus I get copious quantities of fruit from them.  I find the Evans to be much tougher than the Romance cherries that were developed from the Evans.

There are also a ton of wild native plants and wild non natives nearby including Chokecherry, Chokeberry (Aronia), Saskatoon (I picked 42 gallons last summer off my neighbours bush lot), hazelnuts (wild), Hawthorn, Nannyberry, highbush Cranberry and even Barberry in the nearby park.  When I bother to spike them in the spring I can usually get a gallon or so of maple syrup, but the boiling down takes a long time and is a pain so I don't do it anymore.  I have also seen wild ginseng, but I leave it alone as it is really rare, so I don't want anyone else to find them and harvest them.  Hopefully they wil expand their range.  And I would be remiss if I didn't mention lots of areas have morels, while I grow wine caps under my apricot trees.

Hey Derek I just had a thought about your Arctic Kiwi > as I said, Ron Paul's gave me two males instead of two females.  Maybe you got two of the same sex, so no fruit as they are dioecious.  The male's leaves become very variegated if exposed to the sun (very pink around the edges) and are often bought for that ornamental value.  The females may be variegated as well, but to a lesser extent.  So if both your plants looked the same, that is why it never fruited.  You can also tell if they are different by the flowers being either male or female. Also, they not only don't mind shade,  they prefer if a good amount of the day is in partial to full shade, requiring 6 or less hours of sun.  If buying, be careful, some (like T&T) advertise Arctic Kiwi, but are actually selling Hardy kiwi.  Not the same and not nearly as hardy.  Shop by the Latin name Actinidia kolomikta.  T&T sells Actinidia arguta.

Hey Ashley, yeah I decided to pay the extra money and ordered from Vessys as they say their Trader Everbearing Mulberry is good to zone 3, while Whiffletree says zone 4.  Just a difference of opinion or two varieties bred slightly differently?  Not sure.  I'll update next year if it survives the winter.

Hey Derek, I got a small selection of seeds from Oak Summit Nursery this year and plan to get some bushes from them this fall, as he is working on producing some specialty plants.  My only complaint is that they will only ship, you can't visit their nursery in person, which I would otherwise do as I go to Brandon regularly anyhow.  But if they can grow what I can't get elsewhere, I guess I'll have to pay for the shipping.

Hey Derek and Catie regarding sour cherries.  I forgot to mention I have a whole bush line of Evans cherries.  I have tried the Romance series that was bred off of the original Evans that were found growing wild near Athabasca, AB, but they were never as tough as the original Evans, and the Evans reproduce like crazy.  I have to pull and throw away a bunch of young plants every couple of years.  So, if you can find them, try buying the original Evans (or find someone growing them and get the weeded ones) and you may have better luck.  They make awesome cherry pie, great juice and fantastic liqueur!

New to this site. I'm in zone 3 near Dauphin, MB.  I am looking to plant a Trader Mulberry and am wondering if anyone else has panted one in zone 3 and if so what were the results?  Also, I see them for sale for various prices, from $22 at T&T in Winnipeg up to $60 (Vessys sell them for $57).  I'm not sure I trust T&T as I have had previous bad experiences with them but at less than half the price, it might be worth the risk.

For anyone interested here are the various fruits I've had luck with, or no luck with:

Rescue crab apple 2008 does spectacular production every year.
Planted a Sweet Sixteen (Whiffletree) whip 3 years ago, still waiting for fruit but it's doing well
Honeycrisp Dwarf (impulse buy from sage Garden Winnipeg) potted, 3 years ago.  Produced 10 delicious apples last season!
River grape (wild Manitoba) was here before I bought my place almost 20 years ago.  I have horribly abused this grape, but it keeps coming back and                                       producing copious quantities of grapes.
Somerset Grape (Green Barn - a company I DO NOT recommend) did not do well and died in year 3
Somerset Grape x 2 (Vignes Chez Soi)  Both did great, planted in 2022 and I had close to two 4 litre pails of sweet seedless grapes in 2025
A Canada Plum from a local nursery (Secords) and also a plum cherry.  The plum Cherry was productive but died after about 14 years.  the Canada Plum is still going strong, producing lots of fruit every year
Arctic Kiwi {Actinidia kolomikta}  (Ron Paul Garden Centre in Winnipeg)  I bought two female and one male in 2022, but they gave me one female and two males.  The female fruited in 2024, just a handful, but I got at least a full litre of fruit in 2025.
Black Ice Plum (impulse buy from Canadian Tire)  Anything exposed above the snow line dies each year, so I'll be removing it this year.
Toka Plum (Whiffletree) 2023, had a nice first taste of the fruit in 2025
Elderberry York (Nutcracker) 2023 and Bob Gordon (Whiffletree) 2023.  Flowered and fruited very well in 2024 and 2025.
Apricot, wescott (Nutcracker)  Was doing well until animal damage killed it decided to replace it.
Apricot Precious (Whiffletree) 2023 Was supposed to be on Mustang rootstock (semi dwarf), but after two years it's still only 5 feet high.  Tried to contact Whiffletree, but they never got back to me.  If it doesn't flower in 2026 I'll probably replace it.
Apricot Wescot (Whiffletree) 2025 (to replace the damaged one)
Lapins Sweet cherry (Whiffletree) 2025.  This one is a long shot, but there have been several reports of these cherries surviving zone 3 weather so I'm giving it a try.