Dwarf Mulberries

[Joe]

Did you get any berries yet? How are they?

[Barkslip]

My Mom’s plant started flowering approximately 3-weeks ago so I hope she gets berries. I never got any on mine. It just vegetatively grew like a rocket.

Dax

[Joe]

It’s good that your mother’s plant is flowering. Please let us know how they are. Is hers also in a pot like yours?

[Barkslip]

I’ll let everyone know for sure. And same exact pot as mine.

Dax

[Botanical_Bryce]

I noticed a lot of people have been trying to get a hold of me. I am just now catching up. Chills never got his plant so I sent him his money back today. His messages got lost in the shuffle. Apparently he was contacting me at my PayPal email and not the email I use for my personal messages and PM messages on here that I got all mixed up. I am just a backyard gardener who ended up flooded with request for my World’s Best and I left some people behind. Then I got weather that flooded me out. I am going to have some butt kissing to do. Sorry folks.

[Barkslip]

@Joe

A photo update from my Mom’s plant as of yesterday Sept. 15th
There are four fruits on it. She’s going to save at least one for me to try when they’re ready. Got about another 4-5 weeks before first frost here in Illinois.

Dax

[k8tpayaso]

Fantastic growth there! I finally planted mine and some are beginning to show new growth and one has blooms. Maybe…

Katy

[Joe]

Looks good, Dax! Hopefully it tastes as good as advertised. And hopefully you get fruit much earlier next year now that your plant is getting acclimated.

[KlecknerOasis]

My worlds best already fruited earlier this summer and now with new growth, has some forming

[Barkslip]

I ate a soft one today that was perfectly ripe but anyone reading this shouldn’t think much of what I’m going to say because the plant is newly rooted and bore a crop at the wrong time of the year and was most-definitely watered more often than anyone knowledgeable about fruit tree container culture. My Mom waters her plants ‘fanatically’ no matter what they are.

It tasted no different from any mulberry (Morus alba) growing anywhere in the United States.

Dax

[Joe]

I don’t remember @Botanical_Bryce talking up the flavor as much as the size of the plant, the size of the fruit, and the yield. I do remember him making it clear that it was a good mulberry, but the flavor was not what he was talking up about this.

[Botanical_Bryce]

I find the flavor can be inconsistent at times. I have had crops at times not that good and I have crops that were amazing and I describe it as jelly like. We had drowning rains this year and fruit here was not up to the typical standard. If the plants are healthy and thriving I can’t imagine the fruits not getting much better with age. One reason I sent cuttings out this year to see how they perform for other people in different soils, states, and zones.

[TysonBrown]

@Botanical_Bryce - I joined this forum after finding out about it thru your YouTube video comments! Thanks!

Has anyone had deer problems with dwarf mulberries? I had some deer (I guess?) come thru one night and totally defoliate two new 3’ dwarf everbearing bushes, plus one new Pakistani that I had recently planted.

[Botanical_Bryce]

That is the nightmare of buying starter plants. I used to buy rare plants and it was always a horror waiting on starters to become mature enough to overcome issues. Deer and cows love mulberries. I had a cow defoliate mine on what would have been a awesome first harvest. Then when they began to recover deer came in. They don’t seem to keep coming back but they do come long enough to tear my heart out. In my case I had the cow hauled away after weeks of staying up all night to keep it away and the owner not responding to my pleading. In the case of the deer I took the damage on again and used castor oil mixed with diatomaceous earth. That seemed to stop them and haven’t seen them in a while.

[TysonBrown]

In the case of the deer I took the damage on again and used castor oil mixed with diatomaceous earth. That seemed to stop them and haven’t seen them in a while.

Just applied around the base of the plant, or did you smear it on the stems?

[Botanical_Bryce]

I dusted the whole everything buy tossing small handfulls. The Diatomaceous earth has the perfect texture to carry the castor oil. I start with the castor oil and water then mix in the diatomaceous earth until it is all kinds dry.

[Seattlefiggirl]

Shin Tso, Mulle, Chelsea and Sham Dudu can you tell me about their flavor if they fruited for you?

[carot]

I lost Shin Tso to late frosts. That one came out of dormancy way too early for my climate (7a). Sham Dudu is the only one that already fruited for me. It is a true morus nigra cultivar. I do have more morus nigra growing but those are still young grafts and didn’t fruit either. So I do not have much experience with the taste of morus nigra, besides Sham Dudu. From what I read from others Sham Dudu seems to taste like your typical morus nigra. Unripe fruits (red stage) are quite acid tasting. When fully ripe (black stage) that changes to a very nice sweet-sour balance. Plus the fruit has a spicy taste to it, peppery I’d say. I only detect that in ripe fruit. I really like the fruit from Sham Dudu.

[Drew51]

I really like the fruit from Sham Dudu.

That’s cool. I’m hoping to get fruit off my nigra Tsarigradska mulberry from Bulgaria. Next year. Grows in zone 6. I need to test hardiness as the zone 6 (6b) is comes from is warmer than my zone 6 (6a) I’m protecting it for now till I can get some scion from it to graft to in ground rootstock. I can harvest this winter and the rootsock was planted last spring. So I will be grafting it in the spring.

[Seattlefiggirl]

Interesting. i never heard about them cultivar names so i was curious. i like near Illinois everbearing flavor. low in acid. thank you for sharing your experience with growing them.