I grafted about 12 varieties of mulberry scions in 2023. Knowing almost nothing about growing mulberries I was thinking I would observe them a year to decide which would do best at my location. All but 3 have started growing but last night’s cold snap zapped the early ones. I have 4 that appears to leaf out late and these might be the ones that work for me. The later leafing ones are Illinois Everbearing, St Mary, Geraldi, and Weeping. Any opinions or comments are welcome.
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I am half a zone warmer than you and have Silk Hope, Oscar, Gerardi aka Girardi aka Geraldi, Varaha, King James (Morus nigra), a Morus rubra seedling, and then a bunch of mislabeled mulberries in pots (mainly falsely-claimed Morus nigras) that I may eventually sacrifice to the deer.
I also formerly grew Noir de Spain (Morus nigra) and Pakistan. The Noir de Spain died in its first season of some kind of fungal infection (typical for nigras in the South) and the Pakistans were completely killed years ago by a relatively mild late freeze that barely even damaged anything else.
Of these, the latest to leaf out are Silk Hope and King James, with an honorable mention for Varaha. Silk Hope, for me, is only at the green bud stage right now.
If you are soliciting recommendations, Silk Hope might be worth considering. It is said to be similar to Illinois Everbearing, but more resistant to disease in the South. Subjectively, I think the fruit is very good, and I think it is generally considered to be one of the best-tasting non-nigra mulberries (along with IE). It is very vigorous, though.
I can’t really recommend King James. Almost nobody successfully grows M. nigra in the South due to its susceptibility to disease on account of the humidity – I am just trying to see how far along I can get.
I would be interested to hear more about your Illinois Everbearing. Did it put on a lot of growth last season, or try to make fruit? It is a variety that I want to add because of its excellent reputation for fruit quality, but I’m deterred by the reports of popcorn disease and don’t want to provide a vector for possibly infecting my other trees. I have heard of others growing it in the South who have never experienced that problem, though, so I am on the fence about it.
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I expect you’ll find the ones which were zapped will come back with a vengeance. My weeping variety was decimated by deer and probably tripled in size the same year.
Side note- I recently learned that mulberries can be a very tasty green, along with the fruit, so I intend to explore and find out which female named varieties are the best of both worlds.
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How long have you had this variety and what can you tell us about it? I haven’t seen any info on it other than what the nurseries say
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mulberry leaves are very nutritious. they were commonly cut and dried on the branches, then stored for the winter for leaf hay for livestock in the past. some farmers in eastern European countries still do this.
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3 years ago my Northrop mulberry leaves got zapped by a mid June late frost. i thought it was dead. 2 weeks later it sent out a whole new set of leaves. yours will come back.
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Little.
I only just got Varaha direct from Peaceful Heritage nursery last summer. Here’s what I can infer:
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It appears vigorous. I left it uncaged after planting and a critter took the brief opportunity to gobble it severely, but it quickly grew back and regained all the lost ground by the end of the season – nothing like the agonizingly slow nigra growth.
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I doubt that it is actually a pure rubra as claimed / suggested, but it looks like it has a substantial amount of rubra genetics.
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It was one of my last mulberries to develop green buds this spring, and only just started leafing out – after Gerardi but before Silk Hope. (Since my region gets late frosts often, this is a good quality.)
That’s about all I can say for now.
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The I.E. is a vigorous grower and it fruited well. As of now it hasn’t had any PopCorn disease.
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It took my IE about 10 years before it became riddled with popcorn. I lost over 50% last year and the cedar waxwings took it out on my apples and cherries.
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At our farm in Jackson, SC the Illinois Everbearing are always the latest to leaf out and avoid any late spring frosts/freezes and yield well. Grover’s Best typically gets burned back as it flushes too early along with Silk Hope, Siam Jumbo and Thai Dwarf.
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I’m looking for the varieties that can most consistently produce a usable crop for my location. This will be the start of understanding which varieties to graft more of.
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Last year we had mid 20s two nights mid March…
I had jplum fruit set… that got wrecked.
My Gerardi and Silk Hope had no damage… they had bud swell at that point but had not started leafing yet.
I planted a new Oscar mulberry a few weeks back.
Checked all 3 (Oscar, SH, G) yesterday (March 19) and nothing breaking yet… just some bud swell happening.
Now in 2020… we got mid 20s one night on 4/15…
I only had Gerardi at that point … a new start i bought from burnt ridge… and had planted just over a month. It had started shoots and leaves and even small fruit at that point and the mid 20s frost killed every bud above the graft. Lost it.
I gave it a couple months and nothing regrew above the graft.
If it had been an established tree… expext there would have been some regrowth.
My new Oscar tree buds yesterday just had a bit of swell to them (less than SH and G)… so hoping it deals well with spring leaf out.
TNHunter
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The time of bud break is probably influenced a lot by the rootstock for varieties that are grafted, which are usually on random seedlings. Has anyone grafted the same variety on different rootstocks and seen a big difference in bud break?
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As chance would have it, I have two (grafted) Silk Hopes purchased two years apart from different nurseries (Burnt Ridge and Raintree). Neither nursery specified the type of rootstock. However, the rootstocks at least facially appear to be different: the rootstock for the older tree has lighter-colored bark (however, this may be an effect of age as the bark on the younger tree has only just started to lignify).
This is only the second spring for the younger tree, but so far, it has budded and leafed out in lockstep with the older one.
Of course, I cannot say that the rootstock between the two isn’t actually the same (or at least programmed with the same wake-up schedule) and even though I don’t have any evidence, my personal intuition is that your theory that rootstock is a big influencer would probably be shown to be correct if we had a proper experiment.
As an aside, I would note that even when it has leafed out, Silk Hope seems more tolerant than other Southern-adapted mulberries to late freezes. A late freeze a few years ago, well after leafing, that caused only low-to-moderate damage to Silk Hope was enough to top-kill a Valdosta of the same age and to utterly kill (roots and all) two 12’ tall Pakistan mulberries. I have read, though, that IE is considerably hardier in terms of winter cold tolerance (but that doesn’t really matter down in Georgia).
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Re: Varaha
I’ve had that question in my head… knowing where that tree originated - The Highlands area of Louisville KY(two of my kids lived there, for years) - I have serious doubts that it could be a pure M.rubra unless the ortet is over 200 years old. I’ve always suspected that it is most likely a rubraXalba hybrid.
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I have found three wild rubra plants on Russell Island. But I suppose it’s always possible they are crossed. One came up on a riverbank. Only one tastes decent and it’s sick unfortunately. High water is the cause. Some of the tree appears to have survived.
I rooted a silk hope and it’s in its own roots. It doesn’t seem that well adapted to here as major branches died but it too recovered. Damage from cold not wet feet. Oscar seems well adapted to this environment once 5b now 6b until they change it again.
I have a Nigra I protect in winter. Grown from seed from a tree in zone 7. It fruited last year. It’s 7th seed this year. Maybe 8th? I have to check. It for sure is a nigra. The mother tree grew both gender flowers when it was injured. Where my seed came from. The mother treen is known as Tsarigradska mulberry or Istanbul mulberry from Vratsa Bulgaria zone 7
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I am in USDA zone 3a/b Canada zone 4a/b. Lowest temp I’ve seen is -34.7C I think. That is -30F.
I have both Illinois Everbearing and Northrop grafted on a seedling rootstock. Northrop for size and flavour is 2-3/10. Illinois Everbearing Is 6-8/10. I would only grow Illinois Everbearing of the two.
On really vigorous growth I can see tip dieback sometimes but 80% of the growth is fine. Once it started bearing it has born every year.
I note it breaks dormancy very late. Weeks after apples/pears. I mean apples/pears usually start flowering 2-3rd week of May while these mulberries don’t get Bud break until June.
Hope this helps. I’ll have more details on my website when I have the time to catch up on my annual writeups.
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got 10 of them coming.
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i have 2 that i planted last spring .they didnt grow but are alive. were grafted on wild alba rootstocks. got 10 trader mulberry coming from Hartmann’s. also have Northrop. 3 winters ago we got 3 days of -40f that killed it to the ground but it came back from the roots. ill probably graft it over to trader or illni. everbearing.
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