Prospecting for Mulberries

Good to know! My World’s Best is bland until its suddenly quite good lol. Seems to need quite a bit of hang time after the berries turn black to reach its potential.

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I have often wondered if IE is triploid, but I have never found any reference confirming it. It is usually described as seedless, or nearly seedless. Triploids can still be partially fertile, but rare seedlings are often compromised (aneuploid).

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@krismoriah … like the berry size and production on that one… very nice.

But if he is getting ripe mulberries March-May… he must be growing it way down south somewhere ? Florida ? Lower AL ?

He actually bragged on it having no tartness when black ripe… which is a negative for me… but if the flavor is strong and sweetness good… i could live with no tartness.

I just sort of expect tartness in a berry.

But now I really like a nice sweet watermelon… lots of flavor and sweetness… no tartness.

I have heard that Tice and Worlds Best (may be the same) Jan Doolin… and that both are bad about coming out too early and getting frosted… in areas that often warm up early and then have frosts… which describes my location perfectly most springs.

His note that you included said it comes out around 10 days later… which would help some.

Do you know of anyone growing it up around zone 7 and having good luck with it not coming out too early ?

Thanks
TNHunter

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Ps… Jan Doolin has it CM#60 and a video on it… where she says she thinks the upper limit on it may be Zone 8a.

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If you like the tartmess, give nigras a try. The largest local colony of nigras in Europe is in a Slovak village (Pukanec) in zone 6a. Cca 470 trees are not an anomaly. :slight_smile: Some of them are hundreds of years old. Nigras bud out about 2-3 weeks after albas in 7a and are much tougher - the flowers don’t get damaged by May frost as easily as alba flowers.

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Well IMHO different soil and climates etc can change how things taste… he probably has sandy soil…no telling how it would do in your soil or mine.

Hard to beat a good Morus Rubra for tart and sweet…but thats my taste buds.

Bryce used to post on here…and ‘worlds best’ was grown in WV… so for me i dont mind trying these thai or wherever they are from… i zone push blackberries and other things too… some years it may work some not… kind of like your Logans (and mine).

I think earlier you mentioned cliffs review… im not knocking his site but alot of those reviews are cut and paste from elsewhere. I noticed that on alot of things when i was researching… but maybe the other places cut and paste from him…im not sure.

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Anyone planning a trip to Slovakia?!?!

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I corresponded with Bob Hamilton sone years back about Miss Kim. He is, or was, the point person for the mulberry interest group in NAFEX (probably butchering the terminology). I remember him saying that he found it in Atlanta growing a couple of blocks from an old girlfriend’s house or apartment. He seemed to indicate it was pretty low chill and so prone to leafing out early before cold weather has abated.

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@krismoriah … yes I know about worlds best.

Production and size… yes.

Flavor seems to be much more questionable.
Many members here years ago were commenting on that.

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I did find a few PD-afflicted fruits on my Silk Hope tree last year, so it’s not immune… time will tell whether it is resistant, or it just took a while for the fungus to find it.

If anybody makes that trip to Slovakia… I’m interested in trying those 6z nigras.

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Any of those nigra fruit contain seed?

Looks like a bunch of people here would love to try growing them.

I wonder how @Drew51 's nigra is doing this spring…

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It’s grown about six inches on each branch. I don’t see fruit though. It does develop later so I’m still hopeful.
My alba plants are loaded. And I have a rubra from near Lansing. I’m trying to graft. Grafts are alive but not doing much. A naturally contorted rubra too. The mother tree is a beast. I should have tried to root one. Maybe next year if I can get more?

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I noticed this evening that Lucille at Whitmans has a Pakistan mulberry… she describes as 4 inch long fruit and delicious and zone 6.

But read up on it here some and it seems to do poorly in areas where late frost are an issue… and yes… that is me.

A little warm up late winter and it comes out… then a frost wrecks it. Not likely at all to work here.

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Sounds amazing. Any pics of the rubra? Would love to see a naturally contorted one!

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Trev,
I bought a grafted Pakistan, back in the late 1990s.
Dr A.J. Bullard, who imported it with Mike McConkey said that the lowest temperature it had encountered at Islamabad was 28F. He recommended planting with graft union below ground so that if/when it froze to the ground, it could regrow. Mine froze back to the ground three years in a row…would regrow 8-10 ft in a season, but never fruited for me.
I dug it up, stuck it in a big pot, with the intent of taking it to my dad, who lived on the Z7/8 interface, but I misplaced it somewhere

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Not my find, I did see pics of it. It’s definitely contorted,
I also realized we didn’t positively I’d it as rubra. Once I get it growing I can. I forgot I had one more piece of it. I’m going to try and root tomorrow.

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I’m a fan of all contorted trees, tbh :joy:

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Very likely. Mine do, too. So far, they have more male flowers than female. Which can be the down side of a seedling. (Mine are suckers of one propagated by a bonsaist who did not care about the fruit :frowning: )
I’ll try and visit Pukanec in season but can’t promis it 100%. I’ll be collecting seed around my area for sure.

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In 8A GA, I have a little Varaha, planted last summer. Some critter got to it immediately after I planted it and before I got the cage up, and it got severely set back, but had recovered by the end of the season.

This spring, it leafed out appropriately late, close to Silk Hope, and started producing fruit. But last week, the deer broke through a 14-gauge welded wire cage to get at it. The leaves must taste particularly good, as I’ve not yet seen the deer this determined. The cage looked like it had been run over by a bush hog, and the little tree was stripped bare. I think it will survive, but no Varaha fruit for me this year. I am going to put a wider and even stronger cage around it so that it won’t be such a tempting target.

Last spring, I planted three nigras (two King James and a Noir de Spain) from Lucille. Nigras are not supposed to do well here because of the humidity (they usually die of fungal infections) and Lucille told me not to buy them, but I like mulberries, and sometimes you have to burn your fingers on the stove.

Sure enough, the Noir de Spain got a fungal infection a few weeks after leafing out, turned yellow, and died within months, but the King James are doing okay, although I do hit them with fungicide from time to time as a prophylactic. They are putting on growth, but appear to be much slower growing than the other species here. Here is a pic of one:

That was my experience. I planted two Pakistans a few years ago in the spring. They grew faster than I’ve ever seen a newly-planted tree grow, especially a bare root, and were tall, heavily-branched monsters by winter. Next spring, they started leafing far too early and a mild late frost killed them both, roots and all.

I also like some tart in my berries, so Pakistan probably wouldn’t have been my favorite anyway – I’ve never tasted them, but most descriptions indicate that the fruit is mostly just sweet. That’s why I’m trying to get the nigras established, but I’m not getting my hopes up until they have held out for at least a few years more.

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The Pakistani ones are sold by a nursery 23km south of me and they grow it in ground in a greenhouse. They told me they sell them as container plants to be taken out way past our mis-May frosts. They trialed them outside annended up with the same result as @TNHunter .
So I passed. I also get enough sweet fruit from my black alba, which I eat slightly unripe and mix with citric acid for jam.

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