That is the L.E. Cooke cultivar on Russian (M. alba) rootstock?
I’ve just bought a couple of Morus nigra ‘Noir of Spain’ trees from whitmanfarms.com; they arrived today:
Does it look like a M. nigra?
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In the same order, I also bought a couple of Morus nigra ‘Sicilian Black’. I’ve never heard before about this cultivar (and it is not listed by ARS-GRIN), but Lucile told my wife on the phone that this is M. nigra. Here are some photos of ‘Sicilian Black’:
Does it look like a M. nigra?
I believe the DWN tree the OP is referring too is mentioned here:
The DWN admin talks about mulberry grafts here:
http://www.davewilsonforums.com/index.php/showpost.php?p=18141&postcount=16
"FN:
The DWN bareroot mulberries are budded onto Russian Mulberry seedling. The Dwarf Bush Mulberry (available in pots only) is on its own roots.
C."
I’m going to speculate the dwarf bush is being bought form a tissue culture place like Wellspring, which has a similar description of a dwarf ever-bearing mulberry. I could be wrong, someone could ask on the DWN forums if they are rooting their own “dwarf mulberry” or growing out tissue cultures for resale.
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Thanks guys for the help…!!
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It does not look like M. nigra bark.
whoah! was just proposing whitmanfarms to @fruitnut earlier, and now you post pictures like this!
here’s my take, as nigras grown over the summer in the moist west coast, and often under foggy/shaded conditions are the toughest to isolate. The noir de spain seems to be the real deal, though seems so starved of sunlight-- frail and lanky(etiolated), but the leaves seem to be velvety enough to be the genuine mccoy. Best bet would be to send a small piece of its foliage to @Livinginawe for microscopy. He does it gratis. You could refer to his pro-bono website http://www.growingmulberry.org/
the sicilian black seems less of a nigra to me, as it is even more lanky than the noir, so can’t even comment on that. Makes me think they’ve been grown on nitrogen-rich soil too.
quite sure @Livinginawe would be happy to shed light on this challenge.
and as a reference, photos below show one of the noirs i obtained from whitmanfarms a few years ago, which looks so different from what you have now. Internodes of ours are quite short, compared to yours, and it is what throws me off. Also, the subsequent foliage have very short leaf stalks(petioles), but this is primarily due to ours growing under full sun and low-humidity.
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I emailed Whitman Farms about the rootstock used on their ‘Noir of Spain’. I received this quick reply:
“Last year we did root a few Noir of Spain, but they failed to thrive. We continue to graft them on Russian Mulberry.”
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Nigras have been reported to attain 800 years of age, but obviously not a good bet to airlayer one of its stems, and attempt to grow on its own roots.
nigras are already such laggards even when grafted on youthful seedlings with strong taproots.
can’t expect it to exhibit any vigor growing on its wispy adventitious roots.
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I got my Noir of Spain only a couple months ago from Whitman Farms and the leaves look like the ones Stan posted. It has barely grown. May of 2015 I got one of those dwarf mulberries from Dave Wilson and it seems to be much more of a dwarf than these 3 I planted in May of this year, though I’m not so sure it will top out at 8’ as it’s already there and someone locally on a page I’m on said his is 12’ tall. The leaves look different on my older tree. They have always been small. The new trees have leaves nearly the size of my hand (as shown in the pic) and is growing much faster than the other “dwarfs”. So I’m not sure. It does seem these were maybe mislabeled. The new ones haven’t fruited yet but the tree I planted last year did and while the fruits weren’t award winning, my kids really liked them which is why I planted more!
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Why would you think so? If it is a DWN tree then expect 25’ to 30’ un-pruned.
your noirs got shell-shocked, considering it was two months ago they were removed from a moist and shady environment and abruptly transported into phx’ july or aug summers.
could surmise the newer leaves(those grown starting july or aug) assume different shapes/sizes/textures compared to the foliage it already had coming from oregon.
you could anticipate its general growth habit become more consistent next year with a more compact stance, if growing under full sun.
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Because they sell another tree that isn’t this Persian. I have purchased it but don’t have the tag. It was from DW and actually said dwarf everbearing on it. It’s the one in the link about as a new DW tree for 2015. That is what I was supposed to be buying again, not a full sized Persian.
Here are the leaves of the first dwarf I bought 18 months ago. At least 1/2 the size from the newer trees. It is also fruiting. This is the 4th time it’s fruited this year so it is everbearing at least in my climate. Still not sure if it’s a truly a dwarf.
@sarahw - The photos of fruit on stems in the Bay Laurel listing are identical to photos used by the distributor L.E. Cooke. Here is their page for mulberries. Notice how different the descriptions are from those used by Bay Laurel.
Found it. This is the tag from the first tree I planted may of 2015. Dave Wilson Dwarf Black Mulberry. I had ordered the same trees for this year but may have gotten the wrong ones, I’m not sure
. But DW does sell a dwarf everbearing tree that they call Morus Nigra.
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Great sleuthing! As a DWN re-seller, I never saw that plant and I notice that it was a one-year (2015) offering only. Certainly something is wrong in the zone information:
I’m wondering if yours is on its own roots.
this seems to be the ‘everbearing morus nigra’ i have. Was certain it was not a nigra but bought it anyway as the ~5 $ price tag(ison’s) was so irresistible…It has relatively short internodes and really is productive for many months. It tends to be bushy in growth, like nigras, but grows so much faster than nigras when grown side by side and getting the same amounts of sunlight and water.
How big is your everbearing morus nigra, jujube? I guess that was my main question, are these truly a dwarf or in our hot dry climate will they grow larger than advertised? If these aren’t dwarfs or nigras, that would be a misrepresentation of DW themselves, not Bay Laurel, since at least 3 local nurseries also sell these DW trees.