Thanks! I’m in eastern PA about a half hour north of Allentown.
I thought North Star was resistant to brown rot?
If that was resistant, I’d hate to see something susceptible. I often had blossom blight (same organism on flowers) and lost quite a few cherries to it as well. But, it was only 20-30 feet from a TangO peach, which was brown rot central, so the disease pressure was pretty high.
Geraldi seems to be putting out mulberries. There’s a ton of the suckers coming out of this little stick.
Geraldi puts out 3-5X as many flowers/berries per foot, compared to other varieties. I took some pics last year and collected stats for a few cultivars.
How’s the flavor up there for you?
Not bad, but I think Oscar (and maybe Kokuso) were better. Of course if they set 1/5 as many, that could explain the extra sugars. The birds don’t really leave me enough to get a solid sample though.
Here is a picture of a Gerardi Mulberry I received several months ago from Whitman Farms. It is probably 2 ft.
And here’s mine from Whitman farms after 4 years in the ground. Covered in fruit all over, even up under the leaves where hopefully that won’t be as obvious to the birds. At least the size of these trees is conducive to netting.
Chad, the Montmorency and Gerardi look really tight up against the house and fence. I’m not exactly sure how you plan on training them, but they may run into problems in the long run.
We have a Montmorency in the front front yard. Currently, branching begins at about 4 feet and the tree is about 6 feet. This the second season growing and it was purchased as a potted tree. I’d like to train it more “tree” like as opposed to having low branching for aesthetic reasons, and to keep branches out of reach from the deer. The tree is currently in full bloom here in 5b as of 5/10. Oddly enough, our Blackgold is blooming concurrently which is pretty cool.
Photos of the Montmorency:
I’m going to let it fan out, espalier ish. Any forward growing limbs will be allowed. The little stick is trying to push out blooms. The Geraldi will probably be moved if it outgrows its current spot unless I decide to move the autumn olive.
Awesome. Be sure to post pictures as the trees grow.
I found that out the hardway too. Deer love mulberry leaves. Tree came back though. It’s early enough for it.
Absolutely the best mulberry website in existence, hands down!!! It took me over a decade to find my bearings and sort things out in things mulberry. Like most, I’ve also been sold Morus nigra black mulberries that weren’t. It’s not even about the money. It’s the lost time and wasted anticipation waiting for a tree that isn’t what it promises to be. Mark’s website will no doubt be a treasure of a resource for anyone entering the world of mulberries…
How fast does the Gerardi grow?
Mine is new to me this year from Raintree and is absolutely LOADED with fruit. It put on about 3" of height so far.
It is a tiny ittle plant and I hope it will turn into a nice size bush soon. Good thing is that it woke up early in April. My two Nigras (also new to me) are JUST waking up. Laziest trees in the entire neighborhood!
It would not be possible for me to agree more with that whole post you made above. First, I’ve used his web site even more since I posted how good it was. It is incredibly helpful. To be honest, I never quite had a grasp on some of the basic differences between the various types of persimmons (Lotus, Kaki, Virginiana) or even pollination, crosses, male/females, etc. I sincerely hope that site gets the traffic it deserves and everyone should take a look- it is just the ultimate persimmon site IMHO! Again, great job, @Livinginawe (Mark). It’s written so dummies like me can understand but has the details and sophisticated information that the most experienced growers can benefit.
The other thing I had to write and agree with you about, Christian, is that when we got ripped off by a nursery (in my case Willis Orchards who is still selling them) It wasn’t just the $30 tree and $20 shipping that hurt me. That was the easy part. It was watching and waiting with great anticipation for 6 years as my so-called Black Mulberry grew into what was (I thought) going to be one of my favorite trees. Those 6 years were a complete waste in terms of mulberry production for me. Has I known there was even a question about my tree, I’d have bought a second one from another source just to be safe so I’d be sure I had something good in 6 years. As it turned out, all the time I spent fertilizing and mulching that tree and hoping it would fruit and watching it with great anticipation is now the waste that bugs me the most!!! Yes, we are in agreement!