well, it is likely because many nurseries use fast-growing albas, and then graft them with nigras at 4-5 feet level, appearing like tree-roses, so the height is mainly due to the alba ‘stilts’ they are on… I just bought several nigras of this sort and will post pix when get a chance this weekend.
fast-growth in nigras also don’t equate to seasoned wood. Seasoned nigra wood is what bears berries to maturity. Nigras grown under shade and with good irrigation will try searching for sunshine by developing stems with long internodes. With nigras, long internodes equate to puny buds(relative to girth of stems), and this is no bueno. Seasoned nigra wood will have short internodes and fat buds relative to caliper of stem. Fat nigra buds are the most promising buds. Even more promising is if the buds are actually thicker than the stems that bear them. Will post pics of this as well.
forgot to add, we have all three and they all seem to be the same in laggard growth, fruit quality/taste(all excellent). Black beauty ‘being smaller’ is primarily because grafted low. If you graft noir or persian low , the growth will be just as dwarfish. Noir sometimes makes itself look different from b. beauty and persian by growing lobed leaves/fig-like foliage. My sentiments are the same with @Bradybb – about nigras being slow-growing.
and as i mentioned earlier, slow-growing due to the extremely short internodes when grown in full-sun. Full sun is what dwarfs nigras, and full sun is also what seasons nigra stems/buds the fastest.
@jujubemulberry, This is very helpful. So clearly the Nigra is slow growing. I guess with a longer rootstock, it gets more vigorous.
I would much prefer a short slow growing tree as long as the productivity isn’t impacted badly. They sell those low grafted trees as well and that will be my choice.
How long did these take for them to start producing fruit? Not in large quantities but just enough to taste?
unfortunately, that does not seem to be influential. The length of rootstock does not seem to have any effect on growth, and if it does , i’d say the shorter the rootstock, the more sturdy the constitution, but not much more than that. Rootstock caliper is probably more influential than rootstock length. The thicker, the better.
here in vegas, i think it took longer than three years before our bare-root nigras fruited to maturity. From my recollection, recently planted bare-root nigras will try to bear berries, but will all succumb to yellowing or fruit-drop on first year. On second year, may reach red stage, but will end up dropped before any tinge of purple. On third year, may reach purple, but most will be sour, until finally, the berries improve to nigra-perfection years thereafter
In October 2016, I bought four mulberry trees from whitmanfarms.com. Two Noir of Spain and two what they called “Sicilian Black”. I wanted to buy two Noir of Spain and two James II, but they had James II out of stock and told me they have “Sicilian Black” instead. I asked if it’s Morus nigra and they said yes. Long story short, Noir of Spain turned out to be true nigra and “Sicilian Black” turned out to be Morus alba. I will be grafting these albas over to nigra this spring. All four trees have been originally grafted on M. alba seedling rootstocks. With all four trees growing in the same location and under the same conditions, the difference in the rate of growth between alba and nigra is astounding. I think no other tree in my orchard ever grew as fast as these two albas.
below is the ~12 ft tall nigra i got from a local nursery last year. This old specimen was starved of sunlight, having been grown in crowded conditions, and marked with orange brackets are the long interstems it had when i first got it. The leaves were the size of large saucers as well, in its attempts to gather as much solar energy. Marked with black brackets are the now numerous recent growth from an entire summer’s full-sun treatment. Extremely short and nody interstems with buds fatter than the stems themselves.
and quite evidently, the growth of such stems indicate slooow, bushy growth in our conditions. Even the apicals longest growth weren’t much greater than 5".
would probably already have prostate problems before our trees’ canopies would have added 6 feet taller and wider(in each direction from the trunk).
and below are the nigra mulberries on alba stilts. Seemingly rigged to give the impression of size, but it all boils down to the amount of seasoned nody stems each has if considering berry production. If you look at the graft unions, quite intriguing to note the size discrepancies of calipers between the alba rootstoc and the nigra scions
I had one low grafted “single node” nigra on a alba seedling planted in last May in full sun. Just like you predicted, it grows no more than 4 feet with 26 node/leaves.
i agree, that’s pretty fast growth for a true nigra. I’d be happy if our trees grow a foot a year here in vegas. Our close-to-zero humidity and oppressive heat probably plays a huge part. Incidentally @JayKidd, would you have a pic of your nigra?
It’s still early this year, the following is the young tree, I cut off the top 9 buds for grafting. The supporting bar on the back is about 3.5 feet, the tree was a little higher than the top of the bar before winter.
that’s amazing growth for your tree @JayKidd , and from the graft union and the buds visible to me, it does have characteristics of nigra. Many nigras shipped from CA/OR/WA arrive in vegas with signs of rapid growth, but once they get settled here under full sun, growth radically slows down with very short internodes.
@Richard, none of my nigra’s are on their own roots. All are on alba rootstoc. I did dump too much soil on a noir which resulted in the graft site being covered with earth, since it was grafted low, so there might be a chance(if at all possible), that the scion would start rooting at the graft site. Will dig around it to inspect when i get the chance.
I have two nigras on their own roots from seed. About 2.5 inches tall right now, so hopefully I can keep them alive. Cool they are not clones with new genetics they could be fantastic or dogs. Time will tell. I could get a male and continue to make crosses.
