Has anyone successfully fruited a Morus Nigra in zone 6? If so, which one? Persian Black, Italian Gelso Nero, Black Beauty… Others?
What has been your experience with it in terms of taste? Have you experienced any dieback during the cold months?
I believe @Drew51 has a Nigra from bulgaria? currently in a pot that he said would go into the ground
We are zone 5 so Nigras seem to only be in pots for us here
I’m 20 miles north of the 6b/7a interface. My wife wanted nigras… so I bought some to plant for her, knowing that the likelihood of success was slim, at best.
I bought 3 grafted ‘nigras’ from Lucille Whitman, several years back… at that time, she was listing Persian Black as a nigra… but it is not; it’s a M. alba or M. macroura (I’m not a botanist, haven’t pursued differentiating what species it actually is.)
PB survived and has fruited, though not remarkably, here.
The other two… Noir de Spain, and Black Beauty(I think) did not awaken after their first winter.
I heard from a person who grows the morus nigra that the Persian Black is m. nigra.
[Persian, Black Beauty, Noir de Spain, King James] - these are all morus nigra.
Maybe you got a wrong variety but it was labeled Persian Black, the fruit should be very small, kinda round since it doesn’t have any length to the fruits, stains, but tastes excellent. Black Beauty is also supposed to be excellent tasting of all mulberries. I have these grafted but no fruits yet.
Persian Black, as purchased from Lucille at Whitman Farms, is NOT M.nigra, and she no longer lists it as such.
I have seen this one mentioned on the forum before- the Trader mulberry- and it looks plenty cold hardy down to zone 3.
https://hartmannsplantcompany.com/retail/product/trader-mulberry/
I don’t think that is a nigra in the dakotas but a mislabel
www.growingmulberry.org says there are nigra hybrids (that probably could be zone 6)
“It appears that hybridization can occur: A Belgium nurseryman has produced Morus nigra hybrids with Morus kagayame, Morus macroura, and possibly Morus laevigata).”
@Livinginawe do you have more details about the nigra hybrids from Belgium?
Thanks
Yes… I hope he doesn’t mind me posting his information, but Dithmar updated me about some of his hybrid seedlings in Sept. of 2021 that had been sown in August of 2020. Here is his comment and photos:
“These are the small hybrid mulberry seedlings that were sown last summer in August. High ploïdity still seems to bring along dwarfism and slow growth…. As you can see these seedlings haven’t grown very much. In fact they remained fairly status quo all summer and only started to put on some real growth at the end of summer. These hybrids are: (Morus nigra x Morus macroura) x Morus kagayame. They will be grafted onto M.alba rootstock next season to get some more vigor.”
“The difference in leaf shape is really remarkable. I hope this leaf shape will persist when adult stage is reached. Only PNK2 seems to have the leaf shape of a normal M.nigra seedling, it is also the most vigorous….”
A couple(?) of his older nigra x macroura hybrids have produced fruit, but the fruit of most mulberry seedling plants stay small for a number of years, and his hybrids are no exception.
Dithmar also notes that the nigra x Pakistan hybrids awake in spring about the same time as pure nigras…but perhaps a short time earlier.
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@Livinginawe Thank you for sharing. Very interesting. Has Dthmar commented on the quality, flavor and texture of the berries?
Just that they were small but very good flavor.
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