For some reason, deer dont touch my Illinois Everbearing. I know they are supposed too, but I think my deer are stupid. They do love plum, peach, cherry, pear, apple, tomato, bean, roses, and aspen, and sometimes snack on linden, pawpaw, fig, and grape. Im glad they dont like the mulberry, because I love eating them. I also read that you should plant mulberries to lure birds away from other fruits, but birds dont bother my mulberries that I can tell. I have not eaten other mulberries, but I really enjoy eating Illinois Everbearing.
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Glad it made it back!!!
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Deer left my mulberry alone for a long time, then ate every leaf.
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Here is mine today. If you plant a Nadia Cherry/Plum near it, they will eat that instead, even if it is caged. My IE isn’t protected at all. Like I say, my deer are stupid. This year they have even been eating the Himalayan blackberries, although not enough. Yesterday they broke down the fencing around my Nadia and that was the end of that. Must have been delicious. “Hey guys some great salad over here!” It could be that they usually don’t browse anything above 5 or 6 feet, and my mulberry’s lowest branches hang down to about 5 feet.
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Zazlev, you might want to get some of the cheap 1 inch plastic mesh and wrap it in that too. The deer in my yard grab leaves that stick through the mesh, and pull the branch into their mouth. Sometimes it’s like hedge trimming, but sometimes it yanks off big branches and mutilates the whole tree. Leaves don’t stick through the 1 inch plastic mesh, so it doesn’t happen. On the other hand, that mesh is flexible and they can push it over if there is not a firmer support, like your wire cage.
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Thanks for that tip!! Sounds like a great thing for me to do. 
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I will probably never try IE here in southern TN. Hear they can suffer badly from popcorn disease in the south.
I have Gerardi, Silk Hope, Oscar, Lawson Dawson, Kip Parker.
Only Gerardi has fruited well yet (it is in year 3) and tasted excellent this year… as good or better as any blackberry I have had.
Got a few really nice berries off Silk Hope in year 2… nice taste which should improve even more next year.
It seems to take about 3 years minimum for a mulberry tree to start producing fruit with full flavor potential.
I may plant several Gerardi at my new home place… some in the yard. They are very easy to maintain, smallish, compact, very pretty, healthy looking… and produce very tasty fruit for near two months.
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I had IE for at least 20 years before the Popcorn Disease fungus found it.
Depending upon weather conditions, I may lose most of the first flush of fruit to PD, but there are still some really good fruits to be had. Flavor-wise, it is hard to beat.
My two original IE trees are at 20-ft spacings along the property line at one edge of the orchard, flanked on either end with 3 or 4 other mulberries of the same age in that line, and a couple of rows of tightly-spaced (6") 25y.o. pecans & pears in close proximity.
I suspect that PD might be less of an issue if they were ‘out in the open’, and not so closely spaced… it’s really shady there, and I’m sure air movement through those large trees is impeded.
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IE does taste really good. It’s the only non-Black mulberry that I would consider growing. We can grow Black mulberry quite easily here so I won’t, but if I lived in another climate, that is probably the variety that I would grow.
John S
PDX OR
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Deer are not the only pest problem. I have seen woodchucks climb a mulberry to systematically strip leaves.
I’m thrilled to have an IE, and with it’s long harvest, I get to pick (and eat) mulberries every single day going between the duck house and the garden. I’m not a mulberry fan in general (because they’re too bland, but IE is much tastier than the wild ones here.) Our IE tree is four years old. We’ve grafted some other varieties, but are still several years away from any fruit.
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I was really amazed at how good gerardi mulberry was here (southern TN) this year in its 3rd year.
In its first year it fruited but the fruit had little flavor or sweetness… in year 2… nice improvement… a nice simple fruity flavor and sweetness… but nothing complex, no tartness.
In year 3… wow… major improvement… complex fruity flavor with good levels of sweetness and tartness.
It is such an easy tree to grow, prune, harvest from… and produces super nice berries that rival a good blackberry… it stays compact, tidy, super healthy looking… it is one that my grand kids can easily harvest fruit from. It ripens berries for near 2 months.
I may end up with 3 or 4 Gerardi at my new home site. To me… it is just the ideal fruit tree.
In Strudledogs youtube vids on Gerardi… he has IE also at his northern GA location and he says that Gerardi taste like IE. That may be something that is only true if you are growing Gerardi in the hot humid south.
I have heard people in more northern locations complain about slow growth for gerardi dwarf mulberry… but for me here in the south east… my first year graft grew 8 shoots 6 ft tall. Nothing slow about that. I would say that it seems that Gerardi grows best and perhaps produces best fruit in the hot humid south east.
TNHunter
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