Planted 2 of the trader bareroot last spring from Whiffletree. Still winter here, but buds look good(to me, anyway) Zone 3.
Looked up Oriska, ND, it’s between Jamestown and Fargo. Likely a little better conditions there than here in SK, but not much.
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My family’s red mulberry is the toughest one ive seen. Seems to have all the traits of a true morus rubra. Supposedly a true red mulberry should be hardy to Z3 or lower. I have only gotten truly ripe fruits a few times in my lifetime… the birds come from all over and know exactly when its ripe…
This one grows in the worst soil and underneath of driveways and is surrounded by paved roads. Its base rests on brick and block refuse and has been sprayed all around it with roundup for decades. It has survived alot of pollution as it lives in the heart of the ‘Chemical Valley’ of WV. Lots of acid rain and chemicals from the heavy industry of the 50s/60s and 70s. It has seen the roads nearby salted heavily every winter as well.
No matter what she still fruits and looks pristine and majestic.
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I hope they make it safely Steve, I did my best to package them tightly. I haven’t planted mine yet and have more to send to some other folks yet.
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i got mine from Edible Landscaping and added a few other mulbs and stuff while i was at it. (their site is weird now)…
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good luck to you!
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i ordered 20 6-12in. red mulberry seedlings off Esty. they list them as z4 hardy. we’ll see.
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Has anyone actually tasted the Trader mulberries and compared them to the wild mulberries that pop up around here? (St. paul area).
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Growing mulberries from seed may be an interesting attempt to create a new cultivar, but it has its disadvantages. Mulberries do not grow “true to seed”, so your new plant may not be like the mother plant. Also, mulberries are generally dioecious (having male and female flowers on separate plants), with a low percentage of plants being monoecious (having male and female on the same plant). And then there is the issue of time; mulberries grown from seed can take up to ten years to produce fruit (Morus nigra can take even longer). And when it does fruit, it can take several years before the fruit reaches its maximum size and abundance. But seedlings are an easy way to produce rootstock for grafting.
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I have IE Collier and Northrop as bearing age trees here in z4/5 Maine. Last year there was a hard feeeze after they had begun to leaf out and the majority of IE lost its crop. Collier fared better. Northrop did the best.
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Hello! Do you have thai dwarf planted out? Do you give it any Winter protection? What temps has it been exposed to? Thanks
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My nigra from seed took 7 years to fruit.
But I can see it could take ten.
Mulberries can switch sexes too, or you could wait to find out you have male. I was fine with that. It would be cool to breed if male. Mine turned out to be female.
Also since one tree produced both sexes the genetics are close to a clone.
The first fruits were decent size and the flavor was excellent.
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I did not have good luck with Thai Dwarf in ground in zone 8B as it got burned back each year by late frosts. It was moved into the high tunnel for 2024 and is loaded with fruit right now so I will only grow it in a protected setting from now on.
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Thanks for the info. I have a couple that I’ve been afraid to plant out. I’m in S. Texas zone 9a.
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I had an exceptional M.rubra that I selected in east-central AL; on the zone 7/8 interface (30+ yrs ago, not the ‘new’ hardiness zone map.)
Either it was not winter hardy here in Z6 KY & NJ, or was not long-term compatible with M.alba rootstock…it would die-off after 2-3 years.
Re-collected and re-grafted it 3 times, but after the last failure, when I had a chance to go back, the ortet had been destroyed.
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Interesting. I have ‘World’s Best’ which everyone seems to agree is ‘Thai Dwarf’ under a new name. It got briefly down to around 12F here and my young, unprotected tree got zero damage to most branches with only a couple branch tips showing the most miniscule die back.
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For our farm the problem is when we have 70-80F temps in late winter/early spring then snap back to 20F without time to acclimate. This creates significant damage to early flushing mulberries and more often than not results in ambrosia beetle bore holes. The tree then finds itself in the fire pit the following day 
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I wonder about this also.
There has to be some Alba rootstocks out there that would send some of their traits up to the scion, whether it be delayed spring budding, lower temperature tolerance, vigorous growth, dwarfing size.
Has anybody played around with any of this?
I am just starting to multiply an Alba rootstock (for further testing) that possibly sends extreme vigorous growth to the scion. More grafting with this rootstock will tell me if it was just a fluke.
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I would think that a local alba/hybrid that has good vigor and delayed bud break would make ideal roostock. Theres a really old alba or hybrid tree in my neighborhood I’ve been meaning to get cuttings from. One of the oldest I’ve ever seen in person.
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I came across this huge mulberry tree in a cemetery a few months ago, I would assume that it is over 100 y.o. I believe that it is a contorted mulberry. Without a dought, the coolest looking mulberry tree I’ve ever seen. I grabbed some cuttings of it. Trying to root a few of them in my CloneKing.
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if it ends up being a worthwhile scion you have to think of a great gaveyard related name for it!
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