Hearing the stories from you guys is making me think that some varieties just wake up earlier than others. I’m very close to getting rid of this Issai.
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Atlanta, Ga mulberry tree results before and after frost from 3-14-17.
________________________Before Frost 3-14-17______After Frost 3-17-17
6’ Dwarf Morus Alba Issai — leafed and budded about 90% - all died after frost.
6’ Dwarf Shah Reza -----------leafed and budded about 75% - all died after frost.
4’ Deautiful Day ----------------leafed and budded about 40% - all lived 10% fruit.
4’ Illinois everbearing ---------leafed and budded about 2% - all lived 100% fruit.
Does anyone know if the Morus Alba Issai has a root stock or not? All of mine are in the ground and I will not be replacing my dwarf mulberries.
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Great website…but they got that one wrong…it has no Morus nigra in it. If it were a alba/nigra hybrid it would have nuclei that were ~70% of the diameter of Morus nigras, but their nuclei are only ~6.2 um, which is the same size as Morus albas (The Gerardi nuclei would have to be at least 10 um in diameter to be considered for a alba/nigra hybrid). So far, they don’t do genetic testing at the USDA Wolfskill site, so all there determinations are base on morphology. Gerardi has a short internode distance and slow growth characteristic of Morus nigra…but it is not. It is, however, a great mulberry cultivar that produces an abundance of fruit for such a small plant.
Gerardi compared to Morus nigra.
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Wow. Now that is some biology that I can barely grasp.
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how is the taste of shin-tso? You would help me a lot with your review, cause I do not fine anything one sweetness and acidity…
I cannot eat acid fruit, that’s the reason I do not know if I should buy the plant
Gerardi Dwarf is also very late leaving out for me. It was by far the last of any fruit tree I grow to leaf out. I knew it was alive but took forever to wake up.
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I have issai,.not impressed by the fruit
However it roots like a weed from cuttings
So I am going to try using it as a nurse root
For better varietys, tiring a wire at the graft …
As per A.J. Bullards idea
Not much luck yet grafting mulberrys here…
Anyone have some tips. ?
Hello Mark,
I am sorry I can’t answer your question. It did not fruit yet and I since I severely cut it back for scionwood I will probably don’t taste fruit this year too. I did need the wood for some scion swaps and to grow me a backup plant.
The nursery I bought it from described the fruit as sweet-tart.
Last year Issai leafed out very early and a freeze killed the leaves. I thought it killed the plant but a new set of leaves pushed but no fruit. This year Issai is the absolute last tree/bush I have to leaf out. Even after blueberries. The bright side it it looks to be loaded with fruit. I can only hope the taste improves as the bush matures.
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The Gerardi is already fruiting here! But neither Morus Nigra has even woken up. (Persian and Black Beauty). Even persimmons that were late last year are going gangbusters.
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thanks a lot for the reply. I know the problem, did the same thing with my persimmon trees - LOL. Well maybe in 3-4 years we can make a scion exchange. I have lots of persimmons. Give it some NPK they love to feed on it. Then it will grow like crazy 
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You are welcome,
sure lets do an exchange later on. I don’t grow persimmon yet , already started to think about it. I do have other interessting varieties, stonefruit in particular.
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I am in the same boat with you. Summer budding wasn’t successful, I was probably too late last year. Early grafting in spring this year wasn’t successful too. 3 weeks ago I tried the next method, that is grafting late after the rootstocks started to grow. I won’t call it a success yet but it looks like those grafts took. Its Morus Nigra scion to Alba rootstock using whip and tongue. In 4 out of 4 the buds are swelling now and showing some green. As you suggest I will attempt to root the scions with a wire and planting it deep.
The early round this spring mostly was shield budding and splice grafts. None of that took. But to tell the whole story the scion wood looked very questionable. It had been dried out on its way to me. But I don’t think that was the only reason for the buddings to fail. Some buds/wood looked ok still and under better conditions (active rootstock) it should have worked. The budding attempts in september last year had been done with perfect scion wood though and none took. I now start to believe you have to use very active rootstock at least for grafting morus nigra. Thats my experience with it. Maybe someone more experienced with those species can contribute.
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I got a Shah Reza Mulberry from Tyty in 2017 but it died due to frost in March 2017. The tree came back to life later that year from root ,and it is 12’ tall now, but it gives just few berries that are very small. I need to know if yours is still alive and growing and if it has produced you berries . I live in Greenville SC. Thanks Ben
How do you all rate Kokuso as far as early-late? We have huge issues with late frosts here.
kokuso ripens a week or two after my IE.
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I’m sold! 
I sold the house so not sure how the tree is doing. I will be buying the Illinois ever-bearing my next house I buy, it did really good in Atlanta.
I put in Silk Hope last year because of the late frost problem. The fruit is fantastic but I am not sure of the zone requirements of it. Might check that out. Another mulberry that is supposed to be goood and have several weeks of berries later in the season is Wellington. I also put that in but don’t have first hand evidence of fruiting. I hope to have more info this year.
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Have any of you checked out Mark Travis’s (@Livinginawe) web site on mulbs— growingmulberry.org. This is the page for cultivars.
https://www.growingmulberry.org/selection
Good resource.
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