if you’re buying from burntridge, just buy noir de spain if you want a true nigra, as they have apparently changed their blac beauty to the type which logee’s has been selling as ‘everbearing blac beauty morus nigra’, which is definitely not nigra.
davewilson seems to be a credible purveyor of nigras, but you can never predict with basic clerical stuff, as it may just be due to tags falling off and being inadvertently placed on the wrong specimen nearby which happens to be a mulberry but not a nigra.
btw, have seen leggy nigras with saucer-sized foliage(typically small in desert regions), which gave me the impression they grew pretty fast, and could almost surmise they were grown under shade and given plenty of water during their time at the previous nursery. Especially if from overcast and moist OR or WA. In dry and sunny conditions, it is impossible to produce that type of growth. Fast-growth does not equate to seasoned stems, btw, as those long canes had puny little buds on lengthy greenwood, instead of the gnarled branching with plump buds typical of desert-hardened nigras.
Stan, I have a Dave Wilson Dwarf Morus Nigra Everbearing mulberry. I don’t think it’s a true Nigra from what I’ve read here and other places. I’m in zone 9 and mine went from a tiny 1’ stick to a bush 8’ tall and wide in 14 months. Very fast growing and I don’t think it’s about to slow down any time soon. They are supposed to be 6-8’ according to the tag so who knows where that # came from. Fruit was decent. My kids really liked them so I planted a 2nd. It also is truly everbearing as it’s on it’s 3rd fruiting this year but the berries this summer have been dry and awful. Too mush heat I assume and am hoping the 3rd fruiting forming will be better since the temps are dropping soon. Would like a true Morus Nigra so following this thread.
my gerardi’s from Ms Whitman were tiny, unfortunately. I also bought from burntridge and theirs were somewhat bigger and had more branching, but still not enough substance to be game-changing. BTW, the gerardi is another option if you want something dwarfish. It is a bonafide dwarf(at least here in vegas)
speaking for myself, the 3 hr drive will be worth it. A 3 hour drive is nothing compared to 3-4 years of waiting! Of course you’d need to contact them first for availabiity. A sizeable 100$ 8-footer could give you several bowlfuls at spring time the same year if you bought it prior to leafing out, whereas 4 tiny nigras(worth 100$) will probably give you half a bowl, if you get lucky–after 3 years of waiting.
you are saying now that your yard is not that big, but after three years(or more) you’d be more apt to say that your 4 nigras seem to be too small for your yard…
Okay, Raf, you have me interested in the drive though my hubby will pass out at the suggestion! Do you think both of these vendors are selling the Noir on own root or do you think they are grafted? It seems like some people are having explosive growth on their Noirs and I am wondering if they are grafted on a faster growing mulberry rootstock? Are both of yours growing at the same rate?
glad to hear that, but i hope you won’t blame me for any unforeseen shortcomings of the endeavor…
now, if you’re not happy with your purchase or if it dies within a year, you could always bring it back to star nursery and be credited the money back, whereas online nurseries have no such guarantee
incidentally, star nursery sells theirs grafted on unspecified albas, and it is somewhat like cheating when doing this because albas grow fast, so the 8 foot tall would have a pollarded look with a 5 foot trunk that is purely alba, and a crown canopy of about three feet tall and three feet wide that is pure nigra. So if you’re buying one, it is best to buy the specimen with the widest and tallest canopy, and also better to choose the ones which have the thickest calipers at the nigra portion of the trunk. Gnarly branching with plump buds relative to stem thickness are also good indicators of seasoned wood.
all seven nigras i have, have similar growth rates. I obtained the blac beauty from burntridge, the noirs from whitman, and the standard persian from star nursery