I had the Nigra for the first time last yr. Some berries were superb others not so much. They aren’t very big and harvest scattered. It’s difficult to find the fruits and tell when they are fully ripe. They’re hidden under the leaves and have very short stems. The best rate near the top for taste. But not better than Bing cherries, Summer Muscat grapes, or Honey series nectarines. I’d put them in the same category as Summer Muscat, difficult to grow and great for a treat but perhaps not worth the effort and mess, they are messy, stain badly.
For steady fair I’d still take nectarines.
I’m hoping worlds best at least has a good taste. It sounds like the yield is very high. Usually really high yield fruits don’t have the brix needed for a really good taste. That’s why we thin many fruits.
Everyone loves them. Only thing I found affects the taste of them is soil. Bad soil makes bland berries. Rich soil very sweet. Early berries sometimes seem less sweet than the follow ups.
i’ll tell you when it’s bigger! . I did it myself, bought root stock and added 3 cultivars to three rootstocks, so nine cultivars on 3 trees. I’m testing if I like various cultivars. I may remove some cultivars if not to my liking. I’ll put something else there, or remove scaffold completely. I don’t know if this is going to work or not, I don’t see why not? Works fine with peaches and plums. Each cultivar or variety ideally has it’s own scaffold or secondary branch. You would grow with an open center, no central leader. These are hardy types so more tree like structures. Yours has a sprawling habit, and is interesting.
I regularly have morus nigras mulberries from my centenary tree in my family farm, from july to september usually. The tree is mega productive and the berries are no doubtfully the best berries i ever had, mega juicy, sweet and spicy like at the same time. Love them
My experience with rubra’s is that each tree is different. Same with nigra’s I bet too. Most nigras sold around the world are sold as species trees, not cultivars.
Man I wish I’d seen this sooner…or rather knew you had decided to sell scions.
I have a neighbor here with Nigra, and the flavor was amazing, but the trees I had grafted of it got the grafts broken off by rampaging cattle. (Not ours)
I have some mulberry rootstock and would love to try your World’s Best.
Any chance you have dormant scion available now @botanical_Bryce: ?
So true! I planted a mulberry in what was a blueberry patch which had acidic soil, and the fruit was not as good as fruit from the same tree planted elsewhere in more alkaline soil. Same can be said of mulberries growing in a more shaded condition. If the tree doesn’t sparkle with health, then chances are that the fruit will suffer (I think this probably applies to most fruit).
I’ve been curious about the ‘Issai Dwarf’ mulberry. Mine taste really quite awful (The spring crop especially…fall fruit not as bad). I was wondering how soil conditions in other parts of the country affect the ‘Issai’ fruit quality. Does anybody have an ‘Issai’ that they believe tastes decent? It is a shame, because they are very prolific and produce large fruit. Actually, they grow and look like ‘World’s Best’ but they are definitely no “World’s Best”.
My issai are tiny , and tasteless ,nowhere as big as the ones in your photo, 3yrs old.
If they don’t improve soon ( size/ taste) I will not keep for fruit.
They do root easily ,so am thinking of using them for rootstock ?
I got cuttings of “World’s Best” from Bryce last year and they rooted easily. I’ve given away some and have several as potted plants and they are already very productive for their size. My two-year old son likes to pick them and walk around the yard munching on them. So far, they are good but not amazing in flavor, but given that the ones we’re eating are an early crop, ripe now, without the benefit of warmer temperatures and more sun, I anticipate they will get even better. The plants really are loaded with fruit, even though they are still small and in containers.
Regarding M. nigra, I grew a couple of those plants for a while, but that species was too prone to fungal diseases of the leaves and fruit in my cool, foggy climate, to make them worth bothering with. No such problems with “World’s Best.”
Good post, thanks for the info! Good info to have. I know it sucks sometimes not being able to grow everything!
I must say even wild rubra species are excellent, so it’s all good.
Always nice to have a certain base of fruit that grows well in your area. Like I can grow fantastic peaches and plums and most cannot, so I feel blessed for sure.
I really need to try these world best any help appreciated from anybody!
Want some figs? I certainly have plenty!
I have rootstock for mulberry and nothing to put on it!
I will have to disagree with your statement. M. nigra might be the only fruit in the world worth bothering with, in my opinion!!! I’ve been trying to grow them in Miami, FL for the last 12 years or so, and I haven’t given up yet. Right now I have 3 grafted ones in ground starting to leaf out, two of which about 5 feet in height. I’m hopeful that next year I might get fruit. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying Pakistan mulberry, which is all sweetness, everbearing which is good but small, and FL giant which is actually really good. I love mulberries of all faiths…
Wow, it sounds like you’ve gone 12 yrs without fruit and you’re still trying. You are a true fan…!! Now I’ll sound like the old man I am. In most cases we’d be better off growing fruits that develop high quality in our climate. In Miami I’d think maybe Mango and the like. I haven’t tried Mango because my winter even in a greenhouse is too cold for too long.
I can see why some will say M. Nigra are the worlds best fruit. They are great but not better than some other fruits that suit my climate.
Yeah my world’s greatest fruit would have to be black currants. Maybe raspberries are better? Both are right there for me. And one does not eat black currants fresh, but the syrup is so different from any fruit I ever had, it’s just all winner.
I do have 4 mature mango trees that give me, my family and friends tons of mangoes. And trust me, I looooove my mangoes!!! But my point here is I don’t want to substitute one fruit with another. It 's as if you would be telling me if I loved a woman and I can’t have her, to go ahead and love another woman!!!
M. nigra to me is a love affair. It goes back to my childhood and the happy times with my brother, and the inevitable parental reprimands for staining our hands, faces and clothes…It has a very special place in my heart. To this day, I go back to Lebanon every summer and feast on my childhood mulberry trees which I’m sure will still be around a few hundred more years…
That’s a very nice story. I kind of have the same thing about the wild black raspberries from my childhood.
Doesn’t mean M Nigra is the only fruit worth bothering with. Shoot I’ve heard the same thing on here about jujube. I live in a climate ideally suited to jujube and I’d rate them not worth the bother compared to real fruit. But then growing real fruit to perfection is real work. Jujubes aren’t much work and I guess that’s all some people need.
Back to M. Nigra. I’d say that calling your mulberry the worlds best when you haven’t tasted Nigra is a bit over the top to me.
I understand and I’m not meaning to be critical. But taste is usually at the top of the list here when people chose fruit cultivars. If yours just has a sweet mulberry taste along with all the production I’ll be happy. I’ve already stated my reservations about Nigra.
