@Lucky_P pretty sure my Wellington is a true cultivar, even bought 2 from different nurseries… Lol… All same crap growth and crap grassy berries ahah…
Still have them in ground hoping that maybe they change… Lol… But they are already 6 years old, 4 or 5 meters high and no improvement… I just don’t cut them down
because I have plenty of space. Lol
Yep. Trashy growth habit on Wellington here, and not enough flavor in the berries to bother picking them… even the birds don’t seem to hit them very hard.
I like IE, but for a number of years now, Popcorn Disease has taken the bulk of the early berry crop on the two 25+ yr old IE trees in the orchard. Silk Hope has not been bothered with Popcorn Disease (yet. knock on wood), and to my palate, is tastier, and berries are larger - though that may be a soil fertility feature, as it’s in the corner of the backyard, where horses/cows lounge (and poop and pee) in its shade, in either the adjoining pasture or the barnlot.
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Got an email from Bryce on Friday but just seeing the email today. He was ready to start shipping orders.
I responded to his email today and he is sold out already.
I grew World’s Best in a container for 2-years. I cut off water to it (@fruitnut), I had berries three times I think. Each time the berries tasted watery. I liked the wild mulberries better I think, Morus alba. They’re everywhere.
It was the earliest to leaf out in my winter greenhouse twice, too. While the greenhouse does go up on Sunny days, I keep it a degree or two above freezing thru night. It woke up twice about the second week of January. Keep in mind I have hundreds of other hardwoods in there that don’t wake up until April. Other grafted mulberries in there at the time woke up probably middle March. Those such as Illinois Everbearing, Girardi Dwarf, Oscar, etc. @k8tpayaso grew World’s Best at her Texas location and it woke up in January which was far too early for her. She gave up on it there after two winters I believe.
I walked my World’s Best over to my woods and threw it in there.
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Thats a shame. I managed to get back to him in time
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My World’s Best is now three years old in the ground. First year it had a hard time adjusting because of the long summer we had. it started to put out fruit again in Sept. Then the frost came and killed back the new growth. The past year the deer pruned it for me. This winter it is strong looking with lots of year old growth that should set good fruit. I will let everyone know the results.
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Yeah! They ware gone just over the weekend. I guess I’ll have to wait another year:(
If I still be interested on it because after going back and read some of the posts now I’m having second thoughts about it.
I will probably be propagating mine this summer. Might have some ready next year as well if you can’t find any. I am starting a nursery little by little so you never know.
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Sounds good I will touch base with you if anything. Good luck with yours and the nursery. And keep up us posted with your results!
Here is the growth habit after the freeze back two years ago. And some new deer damage on the lower right. For reference it is about 10 ft tall.
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Not sure what affects flavor, but I find the flavor very similar to Pakistan without the green flavor. I have 3 rows of them growing and I do know that each row does seem to produce a different level of flavor and one row doesn’t even produce flavor at all until midseason when all of sudden it begins to taste great. With some exceptions most of my personal feedback through email and facebook messenger has been positive. Some with the same observation which is bland at first then with intensified flavor as the season persists. I had several people make jellies and wines out of them. I have at this point sent out hundreds and hundreds of cuttings and I had hoped to gather more data on how people generally like them or how they perform in different climates. My data is limited since out of the many cuttings and plants I have sent out very few people have given back data on climate and flavor. Even those who promised feedback I have never heard from again. I really love them and will continue to grow them. If I new most people didn’t like them I would stop offering them but with half the people contacting me saying they love them and other half saying they don’t I will probably keep offering them and just hope the person receiving them likes them.
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Bryce,
I am in 7B. As soon as I have a decent growing season (not the trees fault. I will give you some feedback. I should be able to have a sample size big enough this year. Thank you for sharing your find.
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I’m in zone 6a and will be trying out some World’s Best this season. All of mine are currently in an indoor setup as I rooted a batch late last season and then I started another batch on 2/2.
One thing that has stood out for me is how easily the cuttings root and in turn grow quite vigorously compared to other mulberries I’ve worked with. I wasn’t sure if the first batch was dumb luck when near 100% rooted. So I’m 2 weeks in to a second batch and it looks like I’m going to have similar results.
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I’ve had almost 100% of cuttings root even after I cut each cutting Bryce sent into 2 or 3 cuttings. So I imagine I’m going to have some extras in the spring. I’d be happy to send one of them your way.
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That would be great, thank you Ryan! They look great by the way, good job!
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3 week WBM rooting update:
Cuttings appear to be rooting at 90-100% success rate across cups, bags, and nursery pots with “humidity tube” covers.
I removed the humidity tubes today to trim off the catkins and was surprised at the quantity compared to other cuttings I’ve worked with. I counted 23 on one cutting alone. Hopefully that’s indicative of production in the future.
Pretty confident I’m going to have some rooted cuttings to give away if anyone else missed out on the cuttings like @Ruben. Reply here or message and I should be able to send one your way in a few weeks.
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They are looking great Ryan!
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Looks great. My cuttings arrived today so fingers crossed!!!
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Awesome! Biggest improvement in my rooting technique came from keeping the cuttings in a fairly humid environment while they root.
I made a video last summer showing the three methods I use: https://youtu.be/xEXSA53ooX4
Good luck! Looking forward to update!
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I can offer to trade for rooted WB mines died this winter i had mice damage. please let me know if you have any left. thanks!
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