Sfg, they all are similar, but differ slightly in fruit size and flavor profile. To me, Silk Hope is the tops in virtually all categories, but my wife prefers Lawson Dawson’s flavor.
Soil type & fertilization can have an effect… I have two Lawson Dawson trees in the barnyard, benefitting from the cows & horses lounging (and doing other things, as well) beneath them. Their berries are larger and juicier than the larger LD tree out in the yard that receives no fertilization.
I’m sure I’ve related this tale before, but one of my mentors, who lived in Flint MI, said that Illinois Everbearing was his poorest producer, and sent scions of his favorite, an unidentified selection that he’d purchased as Pakistan - but it wasn’t. It was just so-so here… not good enough for me to keep it once I’d fruited it a couple of years. Likewise, Wellington, which gets rave reviews from some folks… is a literal dog here… trashy growth habit, low production, small berries… we don’t even bother picking it.
Sorry- I don’t have much info on it. I don’t know if they dropped early or birds ate them in past years. But, until a few days ago, I never even got to try one and have only eaten half of one, with my wife getting the rest of it. My daughter got the 2nd one today, which was even larger than the first. But, there appears to only be one branch of it on the tree. And that branch seems pretty sparsely populated. Maybe 1 fruit every 4-5 inches, as opposed to most of the other varieties which are packed with fruit.
I did graft IE on the tree, but I think I pruned it off when it was crowding a nearby hardy kiwi vine. I’ll have to check that spot again, as there may be a few up high.
I’m not sure how Oscar compares to IE. I’ve heard that Oscar has a bit of raspberry taste to it and I can see how someone might think that. It’s tasty.
Mine came from @Bradybb (thanks!) as scionwood in 2017.
The tree I have Pakistan on is a wild one on the corner of my property. From my records, there are up to 8 different mulberries grafted to it, though most of the tags are long gone.
Most grafts were 2015 & 2016 and it hasn’t gotten much attention since then. Over the next week or two, I should try to ID which ones are which (aside from the obvious Pakistan and Kokuso which I can tell by their fruit). I’m not sure if it is better to thin it out now, or cut the sub-par varieties back over the winter…Maybe some combination.
Has anyone grafted onto World’s Best? I’ve got 2 WB that i’ve trained as bushes (just kept them small and wide) that I’m considering trying to turn over to another variety. (Gerardi or Silk Hope perhaps).
My Kokuso has very nice fruit. Better than IE in my neck of the woods. The leaves are huge and clean as well.
Scott
Here are the physical appearances of IE and kokuso berries. Both are the largest berries I picked today and grow in the same backyard. Obviously IE is larger, but Kokuso berry is darker. The taste, IE is really sweet and juicy even the ones aren’t quite fully ripe( those still in darker red stage, still have balanced flavor). Kokuso is dry , lack of flavor, and lot of seeds
That looks nothing like my Kokuso berries; mine are slightly plumper than IE, but never develop a dark purple/black color…lavendar is about as far as they ever go. Got my scions from Clifford England, many years ago.
Interesting, further web search found out kokuso is Morus latifolia. Not M. Alba, M. Nigra, nor M. Rubra
I finally got to try a morus nigra fruit. My potted Black Beauty finally ripened a few. They were really, really good. Sweet and tart and tasty.
Now if only the damn thing would actually grow instead of just sitting there.
my IE and Kokuso looks like this. what is the source of your kokuso? where did you get it?
I’m seeing popcorn disease this year.
Mulberry season just started here! Made the rounds of the neighborhood and visited our favorites. One is a white-fruited alba with a sweet, mild flavor and a little je ne sais quoi. The other is a black fruited alba or hybrid that tastes like a very, very good blackberry. There’s a third that’s like a pretty good blackberry, but that isn’t quite ripe yet. All the rest that I’m aware of are bland at best. I’m eager for my Girardi dwarf to start producing so I can see how it compares. There are a handful of berries that were on the tree when I planted it this spring. Not sure if they’ll ripen or even be any good, but I’m still excited.
The local favorites, with three-year-old hands for scale:
We’ll call this one ‘Kendrick’ for the street that it’s on.
And this one can be ‘Courtland.’
could you get any cuttings from the neighbor mulberries you mention? we could trade? i grow a few white and black mulberries but none look like that.
I definitely could! I’m assuming you want dormant cuttings? Send me a PM over the winter and I’ll get you some. Full disclosure on the dark fruited ones, most of those are half-ripe. Still pretty good at that stage, but that’s why they look like that. Also, I’ve only ever sampled wild-growing mulberries at this point, so they may be pretty lame compared to known cultivars for all I know.
It looks like you might have gotten rootstock fruit there and not Kokuso. Mine look about like Lucky’s.
@BobVance I would let your Kokuso ripen more, they need to be all black to get the best taste. Mine are varying in quality, some decent some fantastic. Overall IE is better tasting though, it is both more sweet and more sour. Rupp’s Romanian is really boring, I am going to remove those grafts.
I am also having much less bird predation than usual, but here I think it is because the cicadas have kept their bellies full. Cherries, blueberries and mulberries have no birds to speak of on them. Usually I get a few of the early Kokuso and the birds get all the rest and nearly all of the IE.
My kokuso is grafted on another male mulberry tree. It is the only branch that has fruits
Doh- I just picked a full quart of them at the less ripe stage. They come off the tree at a light tough, so I assumed that they were ripe. One of the other cultivars needs a good yank even when they are jet black. I’ll give them a few more days and see how they do.
The one on the right is a quart from the Kokuso tree, while the pint on the left is mixed from a multi-graft (including some Kokuso). Another pint (most of the Oscars and other tasty ones went right in my belly…).
So far, I think I like Oscar best, with Wellington and Kokuso being subpar. I think some small fruit comes from the original rootstock.
While I thought Oscar was best, there was another berry which was almost as good, though a bit smaller. It could be either Illinois Everbearing or Taiwanese Everbearing. I’ll need to take another look at the tree in daylight (I was picking with a headlamp…), but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to tell after so many years- one of the grafts looks 3-4" wide…
I should mention that a few of the Oscars I got from a graft at another property were a bit tart (the rest being sweet-tart). Still good (I prefer tart to bland), but maybe not for everyone. The ones from my house were sweeter and would appeal to almost any palate.
I think my Kokuso (from Raintree) are also much longer than the ones from Annie.
That makes sense, given that the phenomena seems widespread. Though I’ve seen most of my Montmorency and a good chunk of bush cherries eaten before full ripeness. So the birds are still looking for some desert.
How long is the kokuso
berries in general?
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.