Yerba Mate - how cold hardy?

[JoshHolbrook]

Hi folks,



Anyone here growing Yerba Mate? If so, how cold hardy have you found it to be? All the information out there says zone 9 and above only, but I put mine in the ground this summer and it sailed through 19F last night without any sign of problems. It’s probably foolish to be too optimistic, but if it can take my zone 7b winters, I will be beyond ecstatic. Of course, it’s native range is quite a bit warmer, but who knows, it might be restricted to central South America for reasons other than cold?

[alanmercieca]

It appears that some have been proven to survive down to zone 7a, it sounds like some varieties are more cold hardy than others, also a lot of the cold hardiness info online for plants is not truly how cold hardy the plant is, when someone does not know how cold hardy a plant is, they write down the cold temps that they know it can survive for sure, anyway here is a variety that can handle down to zone 7a, it's a Southeastern North American variety, http://hort.ufl.edu/trees/ILEVOMA.pdf

'Yaupon', and 'Yerba Mate' are each a type of Holly plant, which is used to make tea high in caffeine, they seem very similar, I am thinking that the only major difference is where they are found and possibly the 'Yaupon' found in Southeastern North America, might be more cold hardy.

One website says this about 'Yaupon' holly "It's a close cousin of the South American yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis) and its tea is similar in flavor and quality."

[pogrmman]

It appears that some have been proven to survive down to zone 7a, it sounds like some varieties are more cold hardy than others, also a lot of the cold hardiness info online for plants is not truly how cold hardy the plant is, when someone does not know how cold hardy a plant is, they write down the cold temps that they know it can survive for sure, anyway here is a variety that can handle down to zone 7a, it's a Southeastern North American variety, http://hort.ufl.edu/trees/ILEVOMA.pdf

'Yaupon', and 'Yerba Mate' are each a type of Holly plant, which is used to make tea high in caffeine, they seem very similar, I am thinking that the only major difference is where they are found and possibly the 'Yaupon' found in Southeastern North America, might be more cold hardy.

One website says this about 'Yaupon' holly "It's a close cousin of the South American yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis) and its tea is similar in flavor and quality."

Yaupon is certainly worth a try: it's absolutely delicious and it's certainly plenty cold hardy. I've never seen it take damage here, and in the coldest spots in my neighborhood have probably been down to 15 or so. At lest one blind taste test suggested that people preferred yaupon to mate. It's an incredibly abundant plant in the US Southeast and it's very widely used in landscaping because it's a super tough plant. The big thing is it wants a long, hot growing season and I've read it doesn't do well without that.

I'm really interested in seeing how hardy mate is: it'd be fun to try growing here so I could compare it with yaupon. I've only ever had mate once, but I've had both commercial and homemade yaupon tea several times. I'd also like to know how it tolerates drought and alkaline soils: yaupon is fine with both of those, but IDK about mate. I haven't seen a ton about growing mate.

[JoshHolbrook]

Yeah, I'm growing some Yapoun, but I drink Yerba Mate daily, so if I could get some plants to survive outside, it'd save me $$$$ in the long run. I've had Yapoun tea, but I tend to find it more mild than Yerba, which is good for most but I'm not as crazy about it. Yapoun is also a lot slower of a grower, but we'll see!

[pogrmman]

One thing I’ll note is that I can confirm yaupon can take down to at least 5°-10°F without damage. During the extreme cold this year, a handful of them took minor tip burn on young growth but most were completely undamaged.

Now, with respect to mate, I’m hoping to begin growing some this year to test the hardiness. I think it should be fine here, barring a rare extreme freeze like what happened this year.

[tarnado]

My family has a yerba mate tree in a mountain valley in the North Cascades where it can get quite cold - reliably snows and freezes hard for a period of time each winter, down into the single digits every five years or so. The tree is hale and untroubled and quite thriving.