No. Any false labeling is from the retailers.
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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.
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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
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My local nursery was carrying bare root Bush style LE Cooke Persian Black trees so I had to pick it up!
Nice sized trees. Tree is too tall for a 5 gallon. I’ll have to move it to a tall 7 gallon.
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It probably says it’s on “Russian Mulberry” rootstock, which is a synonym for M. alba.
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I must have lost the tags when it was being potted. Not good. I’ll find out what it says. I pinged the nursery owner to get the details.
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.
4 feet in 1 year is a lot of growth
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It has only one main branch, nothing else. I suspect it will branch out this year and the total height won’t pass 7 feet.
But once the M. alba rootstock gets established expect A LOT more growth.
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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?
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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.
http://159.226.118.46/xfer/2-2.jpg
this is the close up photo of the graft union.
http://159.226.118.46/xfer/2-1.jpg
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.
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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.
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If the graft site was buried underground, will that potentially reduce the vigor of the Nigra?
Or have no effect other than causing the Nigra to put out its own roots?
Would it cause canker and other issues like it would in stone fruit planted like this?
Even mulch around the trunk can cause issues let alone buried in soil. For some plants like figs, it doesn’t matter much but in some like peaches it could spell premature death. Mulberries are related to figs (same family), so maybe it’s OK?
These are two nigra on one year bareroot alba rootstocks in container I made 2 weeks ago.
The one nigra in my previous post was grafted in the same manner last spring, I will bring these containers outdoor in May and plant them after a couple of weeks of hardening. Hope they will grow like their mother tree.
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