Illinois Everbearing Mulberry

I wish I could plant yardful of IE. It seems that I can never get enough of the berries. But I run out of the space so I have to settle for one.

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Tennessee neighbor Rob, how do you like that Silk Hope? Compared to IE? @thecityman has that Black Beauty----seems loaded with berries from a recent pic he shared, however it seems that one may take a long time to start producing good.

The taste of my IE is just amazing this year. Not sure why I am even thinking about adding any other type. Probably should just add a few more IE.

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I know this post is over three years old, just curious on what Mulberry tree or tree you decided to purchase back then and how they are doing? Taste? Type?

My IE is fantastic too but the birds are getting more than I am. I have another IE grafted that I’m going to plant out and then I have a Silk Hope and a Wellington that will also go in the ground. Silk Hope gets really good reviews on taste from everyone. My graft had a few berries on it this year and I’m thinking it may be right up there with IE. The berries are sweet tart at the dark red stage and very sweet when ripe but a little fatter than IE. But that’s from a this year’s graft so it may get even better. And yes, I’m going to plant every mulberry tree I have so maybe I can get some before the birds!!

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I love it Kate!

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Still testing! I can’t say yet. I will know more after this year.

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Thanks Drew!! Look forward to your report.

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Even though the plants are young I will report. Sometimes first fruit is not really representative of what the plant can do. Still will report what I think.

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Kokuso beats Illinois Everbearing for me.

Kokuso has far more berries at this point (though neither is anywhere near ripe yet) and when ripe the berries are fatter and larger for me. Flavor is excellent on both.

Scott

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Good info. Thanks Scott!

How old is you tree? How large can this variety grow?

Yes good t know. My IEB I just grafted, so I can’t compare.
One not mentioned much, is Oscar. Bob Vance has them all and liked this one the best. Noted for being good while still red. I’m not sure what all Brady has? He mentioned Wellington as one he liked. On Ourfigs many say they like Geraldi. I hope to taste most and figure out what my taste buds like!

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Presently,I do have Geraldi(or whatever the name is),yes,Wellington,which is good flavored and Pakistan.
Geraldi is not doing well and I’m trying to graft other varieties to the root stock suckers.
Pakistan received some cold damage last Winter and may not fruit too much this season.
Two others,Illinois Everbearing and Silk Hope were given to coworkers,after realizing there wasn’t enough room for them.Silk Hope probably had the best tasting fruit of all.
The guy who took the IE,said he couldn’t keep the deer from eating the leaves and I’m not sure of the tree’s condition right now,because he went to his place in India and haven’t heard from him,for about a year.
I planted the SH in the other guy’s backyard last year and he is moving and not taking the tree.ramv lives fairly close to me and we dug the tree up last weekend and the soil was dry.I gave ram the tree,which was then potted and should do well.bb
PS I just remembered,there is also a Black Beauty and what’s suppose to be Noir de Spain in pots.

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Yes…Deer seem to love IE leaves, but my deer’s favorite is Gerardi for some reason unknown to me. They hardly touch the Morus alba cultivars.

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Ordered from OGW today. Couldn’t resist. Horrible time of year to plant as we all know, but I’ll water it every other day real good until fall. Should be fine.

I’m growing Gerardi mulberry. Its been a decent grower for me and a very heavy producer given its size. Its still only about 2 feet tall but well branched.

The tree is in a 10 gallon pot after just 1 year and has to be watered every day or atleast every other day. It is a very thirsty tree!
Its currently producing a lot of mulberries (this appears to be the season for Gerardi).

The fruit is quite sweet when fully ripe and sub acid slightly before fully ripe. The flavor isn’t as good as what I had expected especially when compared with Nigra or Pakistan. But I’d be careful about writing it off. Maybe the tree has to mature and grow more.

What others have said is Gerardi does stay small, so if true that is a plus. Although I have no problem hacking anything back to size.

My Kokuso is about 6 or so years old and is under 20 feet tall. There are easily dozens of growing fruit on every branch. (IE’s branches have less than 1/4th of the developing fruit on it at this point)

My Illinois Everbearing at the same age was 15 feet taller.

I did pollard my Illinois Everbearing 5 years ago because I was tired of all the fruit being so far out of reach (and actually my a-hole neighbor had cut back the tree hard two years in a row and it dropped most of its fruit in response to the damaging pruning).

Weirdly, my Sweet Lavender has still not pushed leaves. It still scratches green, but the buds just seem stalled. (it is in a large 20 gal pot, if that makes a difference). Beautiful day was pruned hard this past fall, it is happily pushing new growth and has developing fruit (these last 2 are just 8 feet from each other, but the BD is in the ground and a couple years older).

Scott

Drew, I can let you know when my Kokuso is ripe and let you try some if you’d like.

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Thanks. I wonder if it could be kept under 12 ft. That!s the max of fruit trees in my yard. Beyond that, they are too tall.