What is your hardiest mulberry variety? I realize I’m rather beyond the usual zone for mulberries but I did have a generic “white mulberry” planted decades ago that died back every winter but kept regrowing until it did finally get maybe 12 ft tall and fruited. Unfortunately, some years ago I decided I wanted an apple there more and cut it down. I’m REALLY irritated at myself, now, for doing that. But I thought I’d give it another go and plant another. Survivability (outside) is more important to me than quality of the fruit.
perhaps a rubra would be a more cold-tolerant rootstock, and then just graft over with choice albas/crosses-- say, IE, kokuso, etc.
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northrup or trader mulberry
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Your best bet is to replant a white mulberry (morus alba) on its own roots, just like last time.
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I realize this is an older thread, but I just came across it. I picked up a couple Trader mulberries from Dr. Jim Walla in Fargo in September of '15. Both survived last winter and put on plenty of growth during the summer of '16.
I also have a “wild” white mulberry that I moved here from my old place in southcentral WI (zone 5a - planted May of ‘12). It suffered some die back (and neglect from me) the first couple of winters. It is now about 18" above the top of the 5’ tree tube it’s in.
We’ll see what becomes of all of these in the future. This winter is setting up to be a “real” one
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Ive got an illinois everbearing growing in central ND, zone 3, that is going on 3 years come spring. Grows very fast and has survived 2 winters so far… Not sure how long its luck will last tho!
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Have you protected the IE at all? I had one here that made it through a couple winters, then last spring it didn’t wake up. Last winter wasn’t all that cold either, at least compared to some of the previous winters.
zone 3 seems extreme for even an illinois everbearing, but glad yours has survived 3 years. If your tree has gotten hefty enough, then it is probably more ready to tackle a fierce arctic spell.
I have a 2 foot tree tube around it and I paint the trunks on all my trees with a diluted white latex to keep them from warming too quickly on those calm sunny days, early in the year. This was the first year it produced fruit and it was very good! Only got about 15 berries from it, but it grew more than 4 FEET!
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my first ill everbearing died from what seemed like a cold winter, not sure if it was grafted or not. My 2nd try is a cutting grown and still alive, though haven’t had -20s to test it. I thought maybe the first, if grafted, had a rootstock that wasn’t cold hardy enough. This cultivar really does produce a long time, think it had berries ripening on it for more than 2 months this year.
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I’d say you have a special IE there. If it lives long term, propagating it and marketing it to northern growers would make some sense. Not many mulberries of any kind surviving in NoDak. Not many over here in MN north of I94 either.
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I know this is an old thread/post, but am thinking about trying another IE mulberry. Is yours still growing strong?
Where I live,near Seattle,doesn’t get really cold in the Winter months,but one that has no problems here is Wellington,while the Pakistan does get some dieback even in zone 8. Brady
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Thanks for the response. That isn’t all this year’s growth, correct?
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Northrop, m alba tatarica selection from St Lawrence nursery. I will have plenty of scion this winter if anyone wants…
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what zone is it hardy to? i have a unnamed russian mulberry thats 2 yrs old. got it from cold stream farm. may need to plant another nearby if i want fruit. is northrup self fertile? let me know when you prune. would like to graft to my russian as well.
I’ve got two Trader mulberries here that have survived 3 winters so far. They each get a bit of tip dieback, but nothing significant. They each had a couple fruit this year and they were disappointing. Very small and very few. I’m hoping they do better in the future, but if they don’t I’d like to have another variety that may actually produce some decent sized fruit in quantities.
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the Northrup Jesse mentioned sounds promising but st . lawrence nurseries doesnt carry it anymore. might try grafting some branches to mine as i never got any dieback on the 1 i have, even after our very cold winter last year.
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I contacted Connor at St. Lawrence last year asking about Northrup. He indicated he hoped it offer it in 2019. I don’t think SLN’s full catalog is available yet, is it?
Fedco also used to offer a “northern hardy” mulberry, but they haven’t carried one for at least 3-5 years now.
I haven’t grafted any mulberries yet, but I do have a decent sized wild white mulberry that I brought from my old place. It was about 2’ tall when I dug it up and brought it here. It took 4-5 years before I could tell what sex it is. Of course it had to be a male 
I was planning to graft it to a Trader, but unless the two I have start producing much better I won’t be wasting my time.