Mulberry Tree Suggestion

[Matt_in_Maryland]

Sounds like an absolute blast.

[bleedingdirt]

Yup, should be a blast at 100F

Wish I could go…

[Tylt33]

107, I believe.

[JohnS]

Some sources I have read said that Morus nigra is difficult to grow in summer rain humidity conditions, like someone was referring to earlier. Perhaps it gets diseases in those climates. Plus it doesn’t have real hardiness to most of US- maybe 10 F? This is all from memory, as I live on the West Coast, which is one reason why I ordered it.
john S
PDX OR

[BahamaDan]

Sorry for the late response, but I believe you may be onto something Mr. Richard, as I ended up finding two fairly neglected mulberry shrubs here two or three months after this post that had no problems putting out loads of fruit over the summer despite our winters having no chill. In fact at least one had two distinct flushes of fruiting (one in midsummer and another in September), was quite a nice surprise. I ended up taking a few cuttings to try and root a week or two ago so I’m hoping it’s not a difficult to root kind like m. nigra:

All pictures except the last one are from last summer

Leaf:

Flowers:

Fruit:

Some cuttings (took some of older wood too):

[BahamaDan]

Just a little update: I wrapped the cuttings and stuck them in some perlite and after bagging the pots they’ve started rooting. Photo from a couple days ago:

[Leif79]

I reside in the hot and humid southeast. I was looking at a white mulberry for the kids the two varieties readily available are sweet lavender and beautiful day. Anyone around here have experience as to which taste better and is more productive? Same goes for Shangrila and Oscar which has the “full” mulberry flavor.

[Livinginawe]

Same goes for Shangrila and Oscar which has the “full” mulberry flavor

I can’t comment on Oscar (do not have), but (in my opinion) you won’t find it in ‘Shangri La’, which (in my opinion) has a very one dimensional taste…They are big and juicy and have a really cool name, so that is why I feel ‘Shangri La’ is so popular. It is the first cultivar “out of the gate” in the spring and that can be a problem for late hard freezes. Hopefully someone else in the south with both cultivars will come forward and give you a comparison. Forum member, castanea, recently posted that ‘Oscar’ was his favorite…But he lives in California.

[GeorgiaGent]

I’m interested in Southern favorites as well. I’ve heard good things about Girardi which I bought but I’m look a a full size variety to plant.

[Livinginawe]

@GeorgiaGent
I saw on your profile that you came from California…The mulberry considered of the highest esteem, the Morus nigra cultivars (‘Noir of Spain’, ‘Black Beauty’, ‘Persian’, ‘King James’, etc.) grow well in California, but don’t do well in the southeast. Two cultivars which will grow well in the southeast and have great flavor are ‘Silk Hope’ and ‘Illinois Everbearing’. Of the two, ‘Silk Hope’ has performed better than ‘Illinois Everbearing’ where I am in North Florida. I don’t know how your spring climate is in Georgia where you are located, but in North Florida we get hit nearly every year with late hard freezes. I lose most of my crops on most of my mulberry trees from the late freezes, but ‘Silk Hope’ and ‘Illinois Everbearing’ bud out after the last hard freeze and are spared.

[ramv]

My Mulberry trees are all young but I’ve seen Morus Nigra trees LOADED with fruit all along the west coast. And they are reasonably fast growing too but maybe slower than other Mulberry varieties.

Black Beauty will produce a bush about 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide in 5 years or less. The one I saw was loaded with mulberries. The flavor was described by the owner as superior to other mulberries.

[tonyOmahaz5]

I have been munching on these very large and tasty Pakistan mulberry in the last two weeks. The birds are going wild with my 3 potted PM. I had to netted them. I will probably do more PM bark grafts next Spring and pot them up. I got Oscar, Girardi dwaf, IE, and Kokuso inground and they will be ready to harvest in a few more weeks.

Tony

[Chills]

Tony… with the fruit being so long, and it appears to ripen at the end first and then further up in time, is the far end over-ripe once the stem end is ripe?

Did you graft onto another named variety or onto just seedling rootstock?

Scott

[tonyOmahaz5]

I got a bunch of volunteer wild mulberry rootstocks thanks to the birds drop and I potted them up and bark grafted them with Raf PM scions two years ago. I over winter them in my unheated shelter and they like to wake up real early like in March. I brought them outside in early April. The darker purple is real sweet but the top is sweet also with the light purple. They are crunchy and no purple mess I wish it can handle Z5.

Tony

[bleedingdirt]

The entire fruit turns red and then eventually black. You have a couple of days before it starts fermenting. Black is the best stage though.

[GeorgiaGent]

Yes we get late freezes here this is why I avoided shangrila . Silk hope is a North Carolina introduction it should do well here.

[jujubemulberry]

WOW, @tonyOmahaz5 !
quite impressed you got them to produce decent amounts in your region! Your perseverance paid off, no doubt. Have to say— you are evidently more patient and diligent than i am. Also admit i was a bit skeptical when sent you those budwood, and was a smidge away from dismissing your request as futile(taking into account your location), but you obviously proved me wrong, lol! So you grow them on wheels or on light-weight pots, is that correct?

i agree with @bleedingdirt that they are best when really dark red. Here in vegas, they get really fragile at the black stage, but super-sweet. Good thing about paks is that you could eat them at a semi-ripe stage, due to their mild, low-acid flavor.

[tonyOmahaz5]

Raf,

I grew them in the 20 gallons pots and used the pulley to move them around.
Thanks again for the scions.

Tony

[Leif79]

Silk Hope is a large variety I should have mentioned I was looking for a mid sized tree. Looks like I will roll the dice and see which way I will go. This forum has a lot of knowledge when it comes to various varieties just surprised nobody really grows white mulberries in the south might be for a good reason haha.

[Drew51]

you’ve come across is the genuine fake,

No genuine imitation

but every other white-fruited selection (all random M.alba seedlings in fencerows, public parks,etc.) I’ve ever sampled were pretty disappointing

I heard they are best dried. Little balls of sugar probably. I wanted to try Sweet Lavender mostly because it is so pretty. None of my friends ever saw a white, so a point of interest too.