My guess is the wood you got is incorrect then. My Valor plum I recently learned is half rootstock, and if I gave anyone Valor scions in the last few years they might have gotten the rootstock by mistake. I don’t actually recall giving anyone Valor but it shows how such things can happen.
@BobVance the Kokuso I lose a lot to drops but I think that is the price for that berry … you really need to let them get all dark or they won’t be very good.
It sounds like Oscar is a winner. I probably would try to add it to my multi-graft but it is now very tall so a bit difficult to add. The Rupps Romanian is no good but it is not a big graft. They take forever to get all black, they are super duper bland before then. And, even when they are all black they are watery.
Yep. Bob’s Kokuso berries look like what I’m accustomed to.
I also think IL847 got mislabeled scionwood.
No cicadas here this year. Lawson Dawson was just beginning to ripen a few berries when the serviceberries hit their peak, buying me a day or two on them, but once those first few semi-ripe mulberries were gone, the birds stripped the serviceberries in less than two days.
With 7-10 large, mature grafted (or select seedling) mulberries 15-25 yrs old around the perimeter of the yard/orchard/barnlot, there are more berries than the birds and I can pick/eat… I need to rent a flock of chickens…seriously, there are probably a hundred pounds of mulberries hitting the ground here every day, just rotting & fermenting.
We can only eat so many… they don’t ‘keep’ well for more than just a very few days in the fridge, and while you can freeze them, I’ve never really found a good use for them in that state, though I guess jelly would be the most reasonable use.
I like to put frozen berries, a bit of sugar and milk in the blender. You may have to strain out the seeds with you teeth as you drink it, or you could put it through a screen strainer, but that is more work. I have done this with several kinds of berries, but haven’t tried mulberries. I once had a mulberry tree, but didn’t realize the berries were edible. I told the children not to eat them, thinking they would make them sick. Kicking myself for that! It wasn’t until joining this forum I learned they were edible. Now I am trying to grow Illinois Everbearing and Kokusu, but not having much success. I have a couple wild ones growing in awkward spots that I can’t get rid of, though. Too big to transplant. I saw a catbird eating the berries while still very green the other day.
@BobVance@Lucky_P@scottfsmith thanks for pointing out my kokuso mulberry may be something else. It is sad but is a new beginning. A chance to get a real kokuso next year. I might ask for a scion if you don’t mind.
I had never paid closer enough attention on the size of kokuso berry when I grafted my fake kokuso. I am surprised to find that the real kokuso berry is as big as my IE mulberry which is really a good news. I am very happy with the size and flavor of my IE. I should be happy with kokuso.
I’d be happy to send wood of any size you’d like, from tiny all the way up to 2" or 3"
But, Kokuso (even the darkest ones) doesn’t rank that high for me. I think I’ve figured out the last 2 varieties (tags long gone) on the tree as Illinois Everbearing and Taiwanese Everbearing. I’d rank the fruit quality as:
I’ve only had 1 Pakistan berry, so I’m not sure where I put it, but it was pretty good. Somewhere in the 1.5 to 3.5 range. It hasn’t been very productive, but the graft is also near the middle of the tree and isn’t getting a ton of light. I just went through and pruned out all the branches from the rootstock which was blocking light, so the good varieties will have more space. I was also able to bend several large IE branches to close to horizontal, so that should help me access the fruit next year.
I haven’t had any Geraldi this year (I need to stop by the two rentals that my remaining Geraldi are at), but from past year’s recollection I would put it at 3.5 in the above list (3.7 if Pakistan ends up at 3.5).
Edit (6/27): I got back to one of the rentals where Gerladi has a bit more sun and they were pretty good. Not as good as Oscar, but I need more samples of IE to see where they compare.
While I picked 3+ pints of the others (mostly Kokuso) yesterday and will probably toss them in to make jelly with stronger tasting fruit (goumi and sour cherry), I saved a bowl of Oscar for breakfast. I had a few grocery store blackberries (organic Driscols, which can sometimes be pretty good) left and the Oscar were much better.
I picked the two berries of my Gerardi that had come on the tree when I planted it. Even though it’s still establishing, I thought the fruit were great! I only have wild mulberries to compare to, but I’d say they were at least as good as my favorite wild tree. That one tastes like a really good blackberry (better than store bought blackberries). Gerardi was similar, but less juicy and more concentrated in flavor.
Has any anyone’s Pakistani Mulberry trees died back after winter? And if so, at what temp?
I planted a DWN bare root (and apparent seedling) Pakistani Mulberry in Jan that died to the ground, but revived in June and is growing back from roots. It was rated as zone 6 hardy on website, but last winter, we barely reached 15F so my last winter was closer to a zone 8’s. I’m hoping either this tree just winterize properly because it was from California or that I just planted at a bad time that this certain tree disliked. I guess we’ll see next year.
Sock…I had Paskistan here (70 mi NW of Nashville TN) back in the late 1990s. Planted with graft union below grade, as recommended by Dr. AJ Bullard, longtime NAFEx Southern mulberry Interest Group chairman. Froze back to ground level three winters in a row…would regrow 10+ ft/yr, but never fruited successfully.
Thanks @Lucky_P for the info. Same could very well happen here as my winter climate is on average colder than Nashville’s (assuming in city at average elevation). Also, on my tree, I don’t recall ever seeing a graft union, but maybe it was so low on the trunk I missed it. If there was a graft union, it would have had to have been (accidentally) buried.
My Pakistan been in zone 8b? for at least 5 years and is something like 10 feet tall.The lows here are about 15F and there is some die back,near that temp.
I got to a site with a Geraldi yesterday and the fruit is just starting to ripen. A mostly ripe berry wasn’t that great, but that isn’t really a good test. I’m not sure if Geraldi ripen a bit later or this site is just a bit more shaded. I don’t think it was birds eating them, as they left most of the red currants, bush cherries, and wild black raspberries, three things they normally strip.
I forgot to bring picking containers, so I had to imrpovise…this is an extra t-shirt from the car- I didn’t strip after mowing the lawn at the rental
The above will probably go into jam, along with some goumi and mulberries.
I think I’ve seen a lot of variety in the zones quoted for Pakistan. My graft has been growing here since the spring of 2017, so that’s 4 winters it has made it through. The last 2 were pretty mild of +10F, but the prior ones were around 0F or below.
Bob, thanks for the offer and appreciate the ratings too. I grow up in a place that mulberry is abundant and grows wild. Picking and eating mulberry is part of childhood memories. I am glad to see IE is on your list as I am in zone5 , not all great tasty mulberry trees can survive here. My choices are limited. IE is a cold hardy , good flavor, good berry size, reliable producer, and disease free tree for me so far. I get to pick mulberries all summer long. The only thing with ever bearing is that it doesn’t ripen enough berries each day to satisfy my appetite.
One more, it grow like a monster, hard to control its size.
Here is how I pick my berries. Good exercise
Taiwanese Everbearing is that similar to what i heard four season which is a twainese mulberry? i havent heard of twaiwanese everbearing could you tell me about it?
I actually don’t know much at all about Taiwanese Everbearing. Sam sent me the scionwood in 2017. One thing I’ve noticed about TE is that it really seems to hold onto its fruit (opposite of Kokuso, which drops easily).
They are in ground, but I live in a special part of Mi. 1) North of Canada 2) within 1/3 mile of a major lake 3) my last winters have not been difficult…
Fruits well, same time as Kokuso. We may have been too wet as they are pretty tasteless.
I cut off 6 to 7 ft IE branches 5 or 6 times a season and give them to my neighbor for his chickens. I still need to prune it in the winter. I have one I’m trying to force into a shrub shape but it may be too dense. I’ll know by the end of this season.
