First post here! Mulberries are one of my favorite fruits and they are easy to grow where I am in AZ! My kids are also crazy for them. But my space is limited so I am looking at adding dwarf trees. I have a DW Morus Nigra everbearing that has been in ground 1 year but it only produced 20 or so berries. I read that this variety produces on 2nd year wood. Is that correct and should I expect a larger crop as the tree matures? Also, has anyone that has this tree ever seen it produce multiple crops in one year based on the “everbearing” listing on the tree? It just finished fruiting so I am going to prune it by a 3rd to see if that helps with producing a second crop.
I recently planted a Morus Alba Issai that I ordered off Amazon of all places. Couldn’t find much info on them so it’s an experiment for sure!
I’d like to order a dwarf Geraldi from Whitman Farms since they seem to have good reviews. Any experience on these? How much space do I need to give it and how quickly do they grow? How are the berries?
And lastly, I read about a tree called a Dwarf Red Shahtoot but it appears it’s only sold in Australia from a company called Daley’s. Wish I could get my hands on one of these in the states because it looks like an awesome mulberry!
I also planted the Issai mulberry and mine looks horrible right now. It’s potted in a 5 gallon grow bag. Another member here purchased one and reported to me that the single berry he’s eaten off of it taste like grass. Not a glowing endorsement. I suspect mine will die before ever bearing fruit. haha.
I have a Gerardi/Geraldi that I bought from Burnt Ridge Nursery in the spring of 2012. Four years later and with annual pruning (for shaping), it’s a little less than 4’ tall and wide. Last year it dropped most of its berries while they were still green (might have been water related due to a very dry spring). The few that I tried were good, but I hope to have a better sense this year for how it compares to others – my Illinois Everbearing and Shangri-La should both produce a few berries, as well.
I was the one who posted on Amazon recently asking if people had tried fruit from Issai; I tried to look at my post and the item just now, and it looks like they removed the item and relisted it?
My first Issai berry didn’t taste great. I found a post on gardenweb and the person said it didn’t taste great either. On Amazon someone replied to me asking and said it was “mild to sweet tasting.”
Whitman has a number of dwarf and nigra varieties. If you want them all they are: Black Beauty, Noir of Spain, James II, the regular morus nigra, and Geraldi/Gerardi.
Thanks, Tylt! So that must be why I couldn’t find the posting earlier today about the Issai. Was really hoping that would be a decent mulberry. I talked to Whitman today. Very helpful. Def getting a Geraldi and am going to look at the others. I had thought they all got pretty big! Really wish that Shahtoot was available here somewhere. I’m not supposed to have mulberries in my neighborhood so I have to keep them shorter than the fence! Also VERY limited on space and keep reading about new releases that I want to try like the Nadia plum/cherry. Though there is something kinda fun about analyzing every square inch of the yard to figure out a place for just one more fruit tree!
The one I want is dwarf black mulberry. They say they are one of the best tasting.
Burnt ridge has them potted for 22.50 I think pruned to 18 inches.
I have a few small mulberry volunteers in the garden I would really like to summer bud (can you do that?) with some of the neighbor’s blackish mulberry. The flavor last year was exceptional!
jolenekamama, I have that one and got a few fruits from it this year. They were good and my toddler devoured them! But it’s weird… Mine is from Dave Wilson and I see a lot of others online that look totally different than mine! My berries were around 1/2" long and others seem to have larger berries. But I LOVE my dwarf black mulberry. Going to try to root some cuttings so I can plant a couple more!
I had thought to perhaps try and stool the plant, (if I got one) and be able to take a lot of rooted shoots off of it. I was thinking about planting them along a fence line, and having a long hedge of them.
That’s what I am wanting to do with these dwarf mulberries! Create a hedge of them to shade an area my chickens are in. I wish there were more varieties that were “dwarfed” but am thankful there are any at all.
My first Gerardi dwarf from Burnt Ridge turned out to be Morus alba, with white fruit, and it sprung up to about 20’ high in a year! The replacement they sent has grown more slowly, but after 2-3 years is about 10 feet high and will need to be pruned back. I hope to get some fruit for the first time this year, but at least I know they are black from the very few fruit it set last year. I have seen the dwarf Gerardi at Edible Landscaping in VA, and it is not very high, but I don’t know if they have severely pruned it. My feeling is that any mulberry will grow vigorously given good conditions, though Gerardi does seem to grow a bit more slowly.
Austransplant,
Even in the best conditions,ten feet seems a lot of growth for a Gerardi.I planted mine(also from Burnt Ridge)about three years ago and the growth hasn’t been anywhere near that,maybe two feet at the most.The tree is in a container,but fairly good size.
Here is a photo of mine.Does yours resemble this?
Mine fruited by the second season and put out a lot.At ten feet,it seems your tree should be fruiting heavily. Brady
Mine has not fruited like yours, though it is possible that growing yours in a container contributed to earlier and heavier fruiting (as apparently it does with figs). Nor is mine short like yours, although it has definitely grown less quickly than a regular morus alba. Is there anyone else on the forum with a Gerardi growing in the ground who can give their experiences with it?
burntridge has been an awesome nursery(for me) but recently, seems like burntridge is prone to mulberry id errors. And you’re not the first one who’s received the wrong specimen
like @Bradybb, i am quite doubtful of the gerardi replacement they sent you. Our gerardis grow about a foot tall and 1.5 ft wide max on a yearly basis.
it is as slow-growing as the nigras, maybe even slower than nigra. Of course, our hot and sunny climate and dry conditions may influence this, but what makes me worry about yours is that it hasn’t fruited much, when gerardi is the most precocious of all mulbs. A 10" tall 1 yr old specimen will be as densely fruiting as a 10" segment of fruting stem on a 5 year old specimen.
the fruits are also similar to mini-pakistani’s, being slender, It is sometimes even posted as macroura instead of alba, just like the pakistani, and both reportedly are from the himalayas.
here’s a pic of a tiny but heavily fruiting gerardi<img src="/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c2cec89749bd057c429205228464b87a19df0bf8.JPG" width=“690” height="92
i’d say pakistani is a little better, but this could be due to regional influences as well. Ms Whitman of whitmanfarms.com says it is the next best thing to nigra’s. Her nursery is in oregon, so perhaps pakistani’s better tasting fruit in nv, but not in other states. I’d say gerardi is about as good as illinois everbearing.
