@ Seattlefiggirl Thanks for the info. Even if the trees look identical, that doesn’t mean the fruit would necessarily taste identical. Have you tasted fruit from both Black Beauty and Persian at the same time with both fruits fully ripe (i.e. completely black) and not found any difference in taste at all?
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yep according to my taste buds no difference. maybe genetic testing would be most accurate.
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Here is some info on how to tell M. Nigra from the buds
At least from what I read here, not all varieties sold as M. Nigra (by DWN and others) are actually labelled correctly. I got mine (Noir de Spain) from Whitman farms and it was labelled correctly. A cheaper alternative is to root a M. Alba cutting and graft M. Nigra on it (which is pretty much how M. Nigras are sold).
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In fact there is only the species type “Morus nigra”. There are no dwarf types or varieties with different leaves or weeping varieties or whatever… In fact it is very well possible that most so called “varieties” are actually one and the same. Apart from the fact of course that a whole lot of black mulberries sold as such are not really Morus nigra but just black fruited Morus alba. but that is another problem and another discussion…
Assuming that you get a real Morus nigra (very rough thick leaves and black winter buds) I can assure you that they are all very much OK regardless of the so called variety…
In my nursery I propagate a clone that has existed around here for hundreds of years and it has the largest fruit of all black mulberries that I know of . But that doesn’t make it better than other black mulberries it just has larger fruit and maybe some other black mulberries have even larger fruit…
Anyway, my point is that every Morus nigra has superb fruit, although somewhat difficult and messy to pick. And bear in mind that dwarf black mulberry doesn’t exist!! they all grow to about 10m high under perfect conditions. And very important: You will plant this tree for the next generation!! it will take a generation before it will really start to fully produce!!!
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As I mentioned I have a nigra from Bulgaria. A seedling from a tree in zone 6b. It’s the only nigra in that zone. The tree produced its own male flowers. Next year the tree will be 4th leaf. It can take uo to 15 years to fruit. I plan to graft in a couple years to Alba and see what happens. I have two seedlings. One is 2 feet tall and the other is three inches. About an inch a year. Here is the little fella in the garage for the winter.
this plant is over three years old. It’s sibling is quite different.
So variation seems possible? Both sprouted the same day over three years ago. Oh it’s about three feet tall not two.
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Any interest in a trade? Or scion wood? I’d love to try it here. I’m in zone 6/7 in the mtns so I’d need one like yours!
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Not at this time sorry. I’m not sure it’s anything special either. I must say though leaves on mine look different from any nigra I have seen. It’s definitely a nigra too. It finally fruited last year.
I completely agree with all your observations, especially the one about being patient because they do take a long long time before they are really productive
I got the fake DWN Morus Nigra over here. At least that’s what people are saying. Fruiting for the first time
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Yeah that looks like an alba to me.
Marta still has more than a dozen scions of the “Old Coloma” cultivar of M. nigra for anyone looking for scionwood (@Tansith ?):
I did one graft of that already this spring and plan to do a couple more in a week or two. The scions are definitely true nigra. Here’s her blog post that includes photos of the old tree:
A screenshot from that post:
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Thank you for the tip. That site is already bookmarked … I know its dangeous 
I will have to order a couple of them though.
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Second year Pakistani mulberry grafts on volunteer leafing out this week. This is about 1000m elevation in high desert.