This black mulberry in the pic is definitely not a Morus nigra. There are more non nigra black mulberries out there than there are true nigra black mulberries. All nigra berries are black, but most black berries are not nigra. Sad state of confusion in the world of mulberries. The black in nigra refers to the color of the buds on the tree which turn a very dark brown almost black, and not the color of the berries.
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ramv, have you tasted Australian Green/White Pakistan, it is pretty good. Also an Italian variety called Sangue e Latte is very good with unique flavor.
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@chriso It’s very hard to get some concrete information on M. Nigra. When I think I have some answers, someone changes all the questions. LOL
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Hi Kaz, I have Green Australian. It’s very good. It didn’t produce a lot last year as it was set back by unusually cold weather. didn’t get a chance to evaluate fully.
I’ll know more this coming year. I don’t have Sangue E Latte.
That wasn’t the “vareity” I bought. The story about the seed-selected morus nigra is the same though.
I can tell you the leaves are less “sand-papery” than my Black Beauty but more so than any of my other mulberries.
Scott
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Love mulberries over blackberries any day. My problem here in zone 8A has been late freezes that kill not only the fruit but the whole tree back or even to the ground. Pakistani killed to the ground it’s first two years here and Shangrela? fruit seldom survived spring frosts so I grafted over it last year with a “dwarf” cultivar I bought from Edible Landscaping decades ago.
I’m planting as many as I can just for the birds! I don’t know of a plant that they relish more than mulberries. If I get some fruit; great, but if not, Oh well, I get to watch the birds.
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I have seen mixed reports on Pakistan mulberry hardiness. Some say all the way down to zone 6 and others said 9 or 10. That is honestly an issue I find with many mulberry. No one can agree on zone. Even with deer or birds browsing I find there is an insane amount of berries either way. Mulberry that are not Girardi and nigra grow fast and without restraint. Once a mulberry fruits it gets filled with too much fruit to eat. Plants are drought tolerant, self fertile and not prone to disease. Not a bad plant to have. If someone wanted a fast growing tree that is easy to care for and produces fruit I would say it is on the top of the list. Very much a set it and forget it plant which many fruit trees are not. I have heard people talk about struggling with stonefruit like cherry and peach and to an extent apples and pears but never mulberry. In fact mulberry has the opposite problem. People claim they can’t kill it.
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@elivings1 – I agree with everything you wrote, with a caveat. I’ve grown Illinois Everbearing, which lives up to the name. A medium-sized tree gave me a bowl full of berries every day from late June to early August. It may still be “too much fruit to eat” but it’s 50-60 bowls of berries over 50-60 days, not over 1-2 weeks. So some days it’s just a little too much for 2 people, some days it’s just enough.
Edit: In response to the comments by @elivings1 below, I will say that I totally agree. It is delightful to have a crop that ripens gradually over 6-8 weeks.
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I would argue that is better in a way. I would rather have a consistent long harvest I can eat over time assuming it is enough to eat a decent amount than get a big harvest all at once and have to figure out how to store it all.
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I had a potted tree that I put in the ground in spring 2021, it grew to be ~8’ high in one season, then in the following winter it died down to the bottom 2-3’. That winter the temperature dropped to ~0 F for one or two nights only. I gave up on, but perhaps if one protect it for a few winters the bottom 4-5’ can grow thick enough to withstand such winters.
How big and how old is the tree? I am contemplating planting one, but it will be outside my deer fence and will have to protect it for a few years till it’s big enough to survive deer.
@Ahmad – I planted Illinois Everbearing in 2015. It never showed any cold damage. It is a very vigorous grower – I had to prune it hard to keep most scaffolds (a) high enough not to be ravaged by deer, but (b) low enough for me to pick. By 2021, I was getting much of the fruit with a step ladder. The tree seemed destined to get bigger.
Unfortunately, the tree broke fatally. In a wind storm during the summer of 2021, half the tree blew over, splitting the trunk down the middle all the way to the ground.
FWIW, I planted a new tree this year. When planted and pruned, it was ~ 1 1/2’ tall. I suppressed branches to promote the growth of a strong central leader. By October, it was 14’ tall. I cut it in half for the winter.
Deer LOVE mulberry foliage, so yes protection is essential. My approach has been to start scaffolds at ~4’. The branches tend to grow at a 30-45 degree angle, so they eventually get out of the reach of deer. But deer will eat whatever is within reach and they’ll get up on hind legs. So anything up to ~7’ is vulnerable. With the old (dead) tree, I was able to remove the fencing after ~4 years.
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Thanks for your comprehensive response Joe!
I’m a big fan of natives…but how much more insects, etc does the native Morus rubra really attract than invasive Morus alba, etc? (Just so I have at least some anecdotal or scientific info to help promote Morus rubra more here, basically?)
m. rubra has more sparse fruits, so not sure that helps your theory of promoting it over m alba for benefit of the birds n such. It does make better lumber/posts.
Ramv, my Australian Green is large, vigorous grower and gives lots of tasty fruits in SoCal. Send me a message if you need more cuttings to try grafting. I have all of the long white mulberry fruit varieties that they sell.