Mulberry Tree Suggestion

I can attest that John’s morus nigra has the best tasting aggregate fruits I can remember eating. Its the only nigra I’ve tried.

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What cultivar is it? How big does it get?

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It’s from Burnt Ridge. It’s called Noir de Spain. I don’t think they sell it any more. I have heard various reports on how different various nigras are from each other. Some say they’re all the same. Some say they’re different. I don’t know. I have had an Illinois Everbearing that I thought was quite good here in my climate.
John S
PDX OR

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Performance is quite variable from place to place.
Illinois Everbearing is great here; I regard it as the ‘gold standard’ of mulberries that I can grow (not necessarily of ALL mulberries).

I have a buddy in Flint MI who grows a lot of different fruits/nuts… He says IE is no good for him. He sent me scions of his favorite - one he purchased as ‘Pakistan’ - but it definitely is NOT ‘Pakistan’. It’s a rubraXalba hybrid or maybe even just a black-fruited alba… but not very productive and pretty unimpressive, tastewise, here.
I have Wellington - which gets good marks in some places - but it has a horrible growth habit, fruits are small and not all that flavorful… I don’t even bother trying to beat birds to them. It’s a dog here, but evidently good elsewhere.

About all I can say for sure is… Your Mileage May Vary

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The spectrum of fruit hues I’ve cataloged for M. alba cultivars is from A to Z. Certainly there’s black fruited alba’s along with just about everything else.

To add on to OP’s question, do mulberry varieties differ in their chill hour requirements? Do they even need chill hours at all?

From what I’ve read, they need a little bit chill; around 200 chill hours. Their native habitat is foothills of the Himalayas so that makes sense.

@bleedingdirt, you really need to clarify which species of Morus you’re referring to. :slightly_smiling:

by varieties, do you mean cultivars of a species, or cultivars of a hybrid, a species from seed, or ???

Yikes, I was only thinking of Morus Alba!

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@bleedingdirt: Notice that Morus alba is native to temperate areas of China, not the southern foothills of the Himalayas. :smile:

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@Richard I mean any mulberry at all. If there’s a mulberry that can fruit in frost free climates without the skewed bloom time and vigor struggles most stone fruits encounter then I’d be interested in growing it.

I saw two kinds labeled ‘Peruvian Mulberry’ and ‘White Mulberry’ today at the the hardware store in their plant nursery section, both labeled in the species part of the tag as Morus nigra.

@bleedingdirt would you say they need more chill than, say, fig trees? Or citrus?

White Mulberry = Morus alba.

Peruvian Mulberry … unknown to me.

Cultivars of Morus alba and Morus nigra will work. Now to find one with a correct label. :wink:

@Richard as I understand it all three species can produce fruits with various colors when ripe, so it could be correctly labeled as a White Mulberry while still being Morus nigra no? Agreed on the mystery of the Peruvian Mulberry, I half-wonder if the nursery didn’t just mislabel a Persian or Pakistan Mulberry.

So your consensus is both Morus alba and Morus nigra can fruit without chill hours? The prevailing opinion seems to be Morus nigra is better tasting than alba in general so preferably I can get ahold of one of those.

No. The berries of Morus nigra are dark purple to black when ripe. The berries of Morus rubra are never white when ripe.

That’s a good theory :slightly_smiling:

They are native to regions with record low temperatures in the low 40’s (F).

@BahamaDan, looking through the List of Mulberries (Morus) cataloged by NCGR I found Morus celtidifolia is native to regions of Central America plus naturalized in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.

the best tasting mulbs(pakistan and true nigras) will need not much more chill hours than fig trees. In reality, it is too much cold(or humidity), which prevent people from successfully growing them too far from the relatively dry and warm southwest/west(though am a bit intrigued nigras do pretty well in oregon and wa, but have not heard of anyone getting nigras established in tx).
albas and rubras, and supposed hybrids, are the most cosmopolitan-- growing in more extreme zones, way colder and more humid than the southwest, just as many of them will thrive in the southwest.

“Pakistan” is a trade name for a Morus alba cultivar. In my experience it is not among the best tasting Morus alba’s.

True. The native environments of M. alba and M. nigra include regions with zero chill hours.

Notice that this occurs in temperate areas, e.g. Portland OR and not Bend OR.

My understanding, from Dr. A.J. Bullard, the (former?) NAFEX Southern Mulberry Interest Group chair, is that the original ‘Pakistan’ mulberry, imported into the US (by Dr. Bullard and Mike McConkey at Edible Landscaping, IIRC) originated at Islamabad, Pakistan, where the coldest temp on record was 28F. Not sure how many chill hours it got in its place of origin, but I’ll bet it was relatively few.

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paks are much better than many albas have had, at least where am at. But not that it matters, because paks aren’t inclined to do well when grown too far from here.
so if we should suggest something which is feasible to the majority, suggesting good albas would be more relevant. I think i like oscar and shangrila among the albas, and this ‘dwarf everbearing blac beauty morus nigra’ which i am certain is not a nigra.

In my opinion, “chill hours” are not relevant to M. alba, M. nigra, nor other Morus species from temperate climates. To me, it is like inquiring about the chill hours of true Guava.

I believe it’s time to expand your experiences. :slightly_smiling: