@ramv
I’ve noticed M. nigra grows slowly on its own roots but rapidly becomes a monster in my climate when grafted on M. alba rootstock.
Wasn’t “dwarf” something thrown in by advertisers?
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Quick question (didn’t want to start a new thread for this) - I thought Morus Nigra ripens only in August in my zone (San Jose, 9B). Surprisingly, I found many fruits ripening on the lower branches of my Noir de Spain tree. The taller branches still have green fruit and looks like they will ripen in August as expected. Is that normal? or did I come across a sport?
Green fruits in top branches (tree is still around 4-5 feet after 3.5 years in the ground):
Ripened fruits from the bottom branches:
It’s a mess cleaning up the fruits as they easily collect debris with their sticky surface and hairy outer skin. The flavor is outstanding - tart and sweet. The brix was around 23-25 with intense colored juice.
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Clearly a true Morus nigra. Those berries look delicious! And the ripening pattern seems to be normal to me.
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With the doubt around nursery claim veracity, is there some consensus on whether a tree from DWN labeled “Black Beauty” is truly M. nigra (grafted cultivar–not the rootstock)?
I ask because I think the conclusion I reach from you all (since I don’t plan on doing first hand experimentation to confirm) is that this other variety which they claim is M. nigra actually isn’t. Gives one reason to doubt…
Dave Wilson Black beauty is definitely a Morus Nigra.
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If so then I am skeptical (understatement) of their claim that it can survive in zone 4.
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It’s a misprint or a pretty egregious error. I’m leaning towards the former.
Morus Nigra is marginal in zone 8a — probably a true 8B tree.
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Darn, you’re making me question ny plan to grow M. nigra here. It’s doing fine in my unheated greenhouse, but I haven’t tested it outdoors yet.
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M. nigra grows in the snow-capped mountains of Lebanon so it can definitely take some cold. I just don’t know how cold.
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By the way, I sent off some leaves to get ploidy tested from the seedlings I’m growing from Sheffield’s seeds, hopefully I’ll have results soon. If they do turn out to be nigra (I’m still skeptical myself), then I’ll be planting them out by the dozens to see how they do here, and giving away seedlings to anyone in the area who wants them. Since the seeds are from Hungary, which is a bit colder than either my location or @JohannsGarden’s, I’m hoping cold temperatures won’t be an issue for either of us.
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Perhaps the small number of clonal variants in the US do not originate from a cold region so what’s true for M. nigra as a species may not be true for the clones here.
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Does anyone know if the “Persian” mulberry from Fruitwood is M. nigra?
I ordered a bundle of them when my seedlings proved to be alba, and to my untrained eyes the buds did look right. I grafted a few on my available albas (mixture of Russian seedlings and rooted cuttings) and decided to try to root a few by placing them in water in a dark, warm place. After a week they were forming lots of callus bumps on the bark and the buds were starting to break, so I put them in soil under a humidity dome (i.e. a clear plastic drip tray) in the greenhouse.
Here’s one bud I did yesterday :
And the cuttings I’m trying to root, photos from when I put them in soil yesterday:
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Ive wondered too what the deal is with ‘persian’ mulberry. Is it a variety or a type, and is it nigra or alba? I took home some wood from a visit to the PNW over the winter. I believe it came from Raintree Nursery. The trees were pretty young, but had a rangey alba-like appearance to me. They are growing in the Beacon Hill Food Forest- you Seattle area guys know the spot Im sure. I have mixed feelings about growing non-hardy mulberries in pots, but I HAVE had pretty good luck with DMOR9 himalayan. Also fooling around with ‘World’s Best’. Ive toyed with the idea of planting it in the high tunnel and covering it like a fig. The voles would be on it like flies on shight though I expect.
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I have morus nigra Persian and they look like the real deal. I got them from Horizon nursery but they’re no longer in business
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My main interest in the macroura is/was breeding. Plus the GRIN info included a felonious description implying that it (DMOR9) was hardy to my zone. I figured that was not true, but the allure of a 3” long fruit is pretty compelling. Maybe someday. I was given a stick of a purported macroura x alba cross made by Ted Danieke last year. The wood was toast though.
Theyre pretty darn tasty (the DMOR 9 that is), Ive decided. Ive been getting a small handful of fruit daily for the last ~3 weeks. We’ll see how long I want to keep it going in the pot. So far, its exceeded my expectations.
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@hobilus, are you actually in Vermont? If so, is DMOR9 hardy where you are? I thought they were only hardy to zone 8B or so b
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yeah, Im in VT. I have my 4 year old DMOR9 in a 15 gallon pot in my high tunnel. If it proved not worthy of pot cultivation, I was still hoping to get some viable seed from it. I have some alba males here and as of this year, some rubra males too. Id trial the seedlings for hardiness. Not sure if this is a promising line of inquiry or if its been attempted much. I can imagine a cross with a good everbearing alba x rubra might have a lot of potential. My understanding is that far and away the chill hrs are more limiting than pure hardiness in macroura. Interestingly I noticed that the couple of dozen hardy alba and alba x rubras I overwintered in my ~40 degree glazed walkout basement leafed out at about the same time as DMOR9, so perhaps theres more to it. Perhaps its more about the depth of their dormancy in some sense rather than merely accumulated chill hrs. It makes sense though, that “hardiness” isnt really a single trait.
If anyone knows of hybrids of macroura and hardy types, Id be interested to know about them. So far, it seems like uncharted territory.
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Those growing nigras in containers, whats been you’re experience?
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