Thank you! I’m sure we can work out a trade or something in the future.
Any updates on the VM? Thinking i might get one.
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Could it possibly be the same mulberry as ‘Miss Kim’?..They both come from the same area and seem quite similar.
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The couple mulberries it had ended up shriveling up in the heat, so no go on the trying it. It’s growing very well though. My fault for planting so late, but I bet this one puts on a couple feet of growth before the season ends.
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How are your Valdosta mulberry trees doing? How do the berries taste and how big are they? Is the tree productive?
I purchased a Valdosta mulberry tree this year and was hoping someone could help me out with a couple of questions:
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How cold-hardy is this cultivar?
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In terms of late frosts — how early does it break bud compared to other M. alba or rubra hybrids?
thanks in advance
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My Valdosta looks like it’ll have ripe fruit this weekend. I’ll try to take some photos of the tree and the fruit. Size-wise, the fruit are a good bit larger than most of the naturalized mulberries around here, but not huge or anything. Flavor is good, and sweetness is fairly high. The tree is very productive and extremely vigorous.
It’s hardy for me, but I’m in zone 8 which isn’t exactly pushing it for mulberry. It does break bud very early, maybe a week or two before other mulberries if I had to guestimate. Fairly easy to root, for what it’s worth.
I’m presuming ‘Valdosta’ originated at Valdosta GA, which is USDA zone 9a, in extreme south GA, just north of the Florida border. How far north/cold will it survive? IDK.
I had a M.rubra selection from Auburn AL - right on the z7/8 interface(then) that was not reliably hardy here, 400 miles north, on what was then the z6/7 interface(now 7a).
I grow this among a bunch of other varieties and it is fruiting for first time. Early bud and late frosts here is common but it holds its fruits well, didn’t seem to effect it. I’m in zone 7B. Seems vigorous. I have it in a pot outside.
I planted a Valdosta in 8A North Georgia about four or five years ago. It was eventually killed by a late frost.
The tree was notable for leafing out early (too early) and producing extremely large leaves. I don’t think it’s a good choice for any region that experiences serious late frosts.
Winters in my area are pretty mild in terms of absolute temperature – it rarely gets below 15 degrees Fahrenheit. My Valdosta didn’t ever appear to take any damage from winter cold – the buds were always viable in spring.
Herein lies the rub. Valdosta, for me, was always very early, probably weeks earlier than Silk Hope or Gerardi. If you have too much of a warm spell in the middle of winter, it will start to leaf out. (I had the same problem with Pakistan mulberries.)
Not only that, but my Valdosta appeared to take more damage from late freezes than the other mulberries, despite having been planted at the same time and right next to them. The cambium seems particularly susceptible. A few years ago, a late freeze that occurred in April, after all the mulberries had fully leafed out, inflicted only moderate damage to a Silk Hope, but top-killed my Valdosta (and a couple 12-foot tall Pakistan mulberries).
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The first few Valdosta fruit have ripened on my third year tree. I nearly lost this one too deer who ate it down to just the trunk several times its first year but fortunately it got through that and above the browse line, last year it made some explosive growth and now it’s loaded.
The mulberries are pretty good. Good flavor, good sweetness, good size. Not exceptional in any category but solid in every category. But it’s incredibly productive and very vigorous.
We didn’t have any late frost this year thankfully. I do expect to have a few bad frost years due to how quickly and early it leafs out.
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Thanks a lot this is super helpful! Sounds like it is a more subtropical type/subspecies of M. alba!
