Fruit will color up much better by next year. I also had the same problem of the birds/squirrels getting to the fruits before it was ripe.
7 Likes
I bought a grafted ‘Wellington’ over 25 yrs ago, from a nursery that I no longer recall. IDK if it is true to name or not, but it is nothing like IE, which is growing 40 ft away.
My ‘Wellington’ has that crappy M.alba growth habit, small berries with poor flavor, such that I never even bother picking any of them - and the birds hardly feed on it.
I have seen photos and descriptions of Wellington that looked/sounded very positive… which makes me think mine may have been mislabeled.
1 Like
Sangue e Latte (from Italy).
1 Like
I visited the red mulberry growing near Hamilton, Alabama today and sampled a few more fruit. Flavor is nicely fruity tart and just sweet enough to taste good without being overwhelming. I will get some scionwood this winter. It is just good enough to be worth propagating.
7 Likes
Usually we have large mulberries on this alba at the beginning of their ripening period and then the size gets progressively smaller. This year is very wet (I have a problem getting veg planted) and the fruit gets bigger and bigger. What’s interesting is that most have good strong flavour when just underripe and are just as sweet as usual when ripe. But then every few days maybe 1 in 20 ripe ones have almost no flavour or sweetness at all. Mulberry-shaped water with a crunch.
11 Likes
my oldest tree is this rubra that only fruiteda tiny bit last year for its first time. I was planning to graft it over completely or take it out! 6 years. 7? anyway this year it has a decent amount of fruit and they’re coloring up.
my alba/nigra cross is making a few long berries, I’ll see how they are. the IL everbearing is still waist high, I’m not thinking it’ll do anything until next year
2 Likes
The tree in the photo does not look like rubra at all, but looks very much like alba. The relatively small shiny leaves, large rounded serrations on the leaf margins, and roundish fruits are key characteristics of alba. Do you have photos of the alba/nigra cross?
1 Like
I stumbled upon this thread looking for info on ‘Varaha’ & made an account just to say the last couple “Red Mulberries” members posted are not straight M. rubras.
@manyasfigs25 appears to have a hybrid (with some nice looking fruit!), and @resonanteye seems to have a straight M. alba (could be a complex backcrossed hybrid tho).
Here’s a pic showing the difference, with Red Mulberry leaf on the top, an alba x rubra hybrid I found in the middle, & a characteristic White Mulberry leaf on the bottom:
11 Likes
Welcome to the forum!
I started hunting mulberries this spring to learn how to ID them better. Most of what I am finding in middle TN just outside of Nashville look like pure rubra, and the few hybrids are mostly a bit more rubra like than your middle leaf, but lack the fuzzy hairs underneath, with semi-rough upper surfaces. Leaves are similar shape to rubra, but smaller. I assume they are hybrids crossed back to rubra. Not that surprising since the rubras seem to outnumber hybrids and albas here at least 100:1 in the areas I have searched. I have only seen albas in urban neighborhoods in Nashville so far, but even there, rubras are quite common.
4 Likes
The first prematurely ripe nigra fruit of the season on a branch damaged by deer. It was like 
I hope the rest won’t ripen too soon…
4 Likes
I should have been more clear, that is the cross breed tree in the photo. edit to add photos of that tree and my others. I’ve got 4 in ground at various ages
one is Illinois, one is from a tree I grew up eating from, the other two are of uncertain parentage. pretty sure this first photo is my “nostalgia tree”.
I was referring to the tree in this picture. It’s definitely not a Red Mulberry (but perhaps you already know…).
1 Like
oh yes it may be. it’s so isolated, I assume it’s red. it’s a childhood flavor to me because of the tree it was taken from (not seed). in my last post you can see in the photos of its leaves that there is the serration of a crossed rubra/alba to them.
All of those look like White or mostly White hybrids IMO.
@kiwinut Yeah, I suppose I should have mentioned my “Red Mulberry” could also be a hybrid. Here on the East Coast the albas outnumber the rubras at least 1000:1, & the hybrids will tend to acquire the appearance of whichever species is most common. Middle TN is a great spot to find rubras. I actually grafted some male rubra buds I brought back from TN earlier this year, I should go check on those…
2 Likes
I really think to find a purely rubra tree must be impossible on the east coast; so many alba planted so long ago that even an isolated spot, the birds will bring them.
this tree has been my hardiest though, which is good- I don’t water or baby it at all. my others I must water during our hot days or they will shrivel.
1 Like
great pic. the leaf morphology varies in my limited experience, but the top surface of the leaf is pretty distinct. Its very rough, like sandpaper. Good visual aid
1 Like
the conventional wisdom seems to be that alba traits are preeminent, perhaps due to an abundance of dominant alleles. Im not saying thats gospel, but thats the narrative out there. Its a bit funny in that theres are people who feel it’s imperative to murder every hybrid tree they can, while from a pure fruit growing perspective they are probably the most promising overall.
6 Likes
