Wow, Steve! I see you are Zone 3b/4a. You can’t blame rubra for checking out… I know I would too. It sounds ok to me right now because I am sweating now, but I know that when winter rolls around again I will be glad I’m soft, lazy, and warm here in Florida.
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I’ll bet you’re right there. The M.rubra fruits on the ones I grew up with in east-central AL were comparable to any of the hybrids I grow, in size and flavor - but productivity was less, and there was essentially one ‘wave’ of fruit over a couple weeks timeframe, rather than multiple waves over 6-8 weeks.
Rubra fruits on the locals I’ve found here in KY are smaller, and less juicy - though still quite flavorful - than those of the hybrids.
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all the M.albas have done well here with no dieback. hoping the illni. everbearing does too.
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For anyone that wishes to get into this contest but isn’t aware of any true Morus rubras in their area, the TORCH portal (Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria) is a great locator tool. It can combine the resources of a large number of herbarium collections (throughout the US) and shows the locations of the trees (Morus rubra) on a map. Clicking on a particular “dot” will pull up the actual record of the specimen, usually giving GPS coordinates that can take you to within twenty feet of the tree (by using Google maps or a free GPS coordinate locator).
TORCH Portal Home
Here is an example:
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Have you contacted the Guy asking maybe he wants a lot of different mulberries from all regions ?
How so are they bad ?
Are they dry or Bland tasting?
I do not think dry is a bad feature could be good in baked goods, and good if they are sour
also been reading about traditional uses for mulberries between 70 or 80 uses
in the middle east like Mulberry flour is one of them I remember.
By chance I was just reading How White Mulberry has the fastest pollen known in biology
So no wonder they spread so much or hybridize …
Blockquote
Anemophilous plants described as catapulting pollen explosively into the air have rarely attracted detailed examination. We investigated floral anthesis in a male mulberry tree with high-speed video and a force probe. The stamen was inflexed within the floral bud. Exposure to dry air initially resulted in a gradual movement of the stamen. This caused fine threads to tear at the stomium, ensuring dehiscence of the anther, and subsequently enabled the anther to slip off a restraining pistillode. The sudden release of stored elastic energy in the spring-like filament drove the stamen to straighten in less than 25 μs, and reflex the petals to velocities in excess of half the speed of sound. This is the fastest motion yet observed in biology, and approaches the theoretical physical limits for movements in plants.
I am glad for you posting this Good someone is preserving the native species!
I think I was incorrect isn’t mulberry easy to root this is what I read now ?
I need to know as I want to root that later yielding mulberry (mid August or may be ever bearing )
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Because it is a grant that is being funded by the Ohio SARE’s chapter, it is focused on that particular USDA zone of 7 or colder. A biologist involved in the grant had claimed that mulberry trees coming from warmer regions of the US might not withstand the colder winters of Ohio. I don’t know if he is totally correct in that assumption, but I hope to get (sort of) an answer by mailing a couple of by Morus rubras northwards and see how they handle the winter.
A little bland and dry is a good description. Very few seem to produce a nice, large, fat and juicy, Red Mulberry that say “Wow!”. But most are just fine and actually quite pleasant. The real issue seems to be that so many trees have fruit that just doesn’t seem to want to stay attached to the branch and reach maturity, and that could be mainly a nutritional or other factor. I just don’t know.
Good article.
Most White Mulberry (Morus rubra) roots easily, but Morus rubra (and may of its hybrids) are quite difficult to root. After about 150 dormant rubra cuttings and a couple dozen softwood cuttings later, I don’t have a single success to my name. I have tried all sorts of hormones and concentrations and the only achievement has been some callusing on a few. Interestingly, what seems to be one of the best rooting substance is onion or shallot juice, and sticking the cutting in finely chopped sphagnum moss mixed with an equal volume of perlite. Wet thoroughly, and then squeeze a handful at a time of the mixture to remove excess water and dump it in a thin, long plastic bag (see “fig pop method”). Dormant and softwood mulberry cuttings seem to have the greatest chance of success using this method. Sphagnum moss (not the dead Sphagnum “peat moss”) has certain anti-fungal and root stimulating properties.
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I wrote this below post under your quote before your response but please keep a open mind
A berry that falls before ripe that is dry
Both those could be positive traits
A dry BErry some people do not want messy berries on side walk
or used for drying fruit or ground into flour
also think Mulberry oils in seed
You May have
A Berry that falls before ripe
well as I see it when mulberries get very juicy, and ripe the sweetness can mask the acidity
Picking them Early can have a nice balance of acid, and sweetness
If the berry falls prematurely I could see that as a positive .
Also very good for freeze dried from my personal experience with more acidic fruit.
Also I am not positive , but could be good in a baked good.
(I do have a link with Saving Middle Eastern peoples traditions by saving White Mulberry types )
I did read the site and this post
I am not sure if I get the impression all red mulberries (M. rubra) are welcome or just the best selections ?
As I see it as a preservation then yes all like in the topic, but on the site seems to want the best selections just for fruit?
If so
Not sure if that is the best way to go about it
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Hi I did not look this Over but I wonder if it was brought up about
Red Mulberry, the Canada-Ontario Environmental Farm
(I was actually wanting to read about those traditional uses again,
and I mixed up web sites so saw this in bold to look into)
In Ontario
Red mulberry occurs in eastern North American forests. In Canada, it is only found in the Carolinian Zone (the small area of Ontario southwest of Toronto to Sarnia down to the shores of Lake Erie) near rivers, the shores of Lake Erie, and the slopes of the Niagara Escarpment.
(yellow marker highlights on map)
A long read maybe could be of use to the people of Ohio
Scroll down half way
(section 5, and it lists a list of land owners 2 links same thing see below second link )
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I may agree with you… That mulberries have more to offer that just the traditional fruit use. But the demand in America in those other areas has not at present been developed, and since this is a grant from the “Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education” foundation, I feel Weston’s hands are tied and he must pursue it from the standard American approach to mulberry as a sweet fruit. It is a big step for them to even consider Weston’s proposal for grant worthiness, since most Americans do not feel it as any agricultural value.
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I don’t think I ate a mulberry until I was in my early 30s. But, as a youngster, on a little hardscrabble AL farm, red mulberry was one of the best, long-lasting fenceposts we had available.
Mulberry lumber is quite beautiful, and some of those big old M.rubra trees in the woods back home would probably have yielded some nice sawlogs.
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Oh yeah… There are quite a few dead but still standing mulberry around me. I’m working on a better fence around my home orchard and it and locust are my go to’s for posts.
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Thanks for pointing that out. Although we have a very astute and knowledgeable group here in this forum, not all may be aware that White Mulberry refers to the species Morus alba and does not refer to the fruit color (though some White Mulberry cultivars do have white fruit).
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Oh, yeah, HERE, I would use black locust, Osage Orange, or Eastern Redcedar for fenceposts, but black locust and OO were nonexistent on our AL property, and a good deep woods-grown redcedar with lots of heartwood was not all that common… so mulberry and catalpa got a lot of use.
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Most all Black Locust around here of any size are dead. Kind of rare to see an Osage Orange either. Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) are quite abundant though. Like you say, remove the sapwood and leave only heartwood and they’ll last a very long time. I’ve helped cut so many of the out of pastures, have a dislike for them, there are few of any size on my property 
I was unaware Catalpa was rot resistant and good for posts, learned something new…
Reading that Ontario site I guess there are some diseases ( see below )
1996). In West Virginia, ozone damage to Red Mulberry leaves is believed to increase susceptibility to an opportunistic twig canker disease (Nectria cinnabarina) leading to the death of whole trees
(or coral spot )
Reading here on growingfruit I saw a mention of tobacco mosaic virus as well
on another note
keep in mind that older picture of the tree bark I posted
the younger trees of true red mulberry have different bark until getting older.
I’d hate to see someone chop a young one down thinking it was not native
because of my picture.
Coral spot (on random tree)
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Does a Red mulberry have more of a rubbery hard to break twigs ?
I think One in my alley is one
From past observations the fruit is more drier,
The bark looks more like it as well (but young )
I will look at the buds identity pictures here later
rounder leaves as well
mainly want to know if the twigs are more rubbery (this was odd to me)
I don’t relate to the rubbery aspect, but Red Mulberry, I believe, is a little more flexible than White Mulberry. Indians made bows out of its wood. But Red Mulberry has twigs that are much thinner than White Mulberry, and the twiggy growth near the end of the branches kind of zig-zags a bit.
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a little short on time to research much
If I post a picture or 2 do you think you could ID ?
but I know these leaves are still small
I heard they got a new species native morus murrayana
(not sure if this is a variation (sub species) or whole new species Yet.
and of coarse the red native mulberry in Texas (it’s small)
Morus microphylla
I suppose Texas , and OK have another one Morus celtidifolia
(I wasn’t even aware but when went to see the Latin name of Texas Mulberry I saw another one
which is strange since it was not listed on the native web sites I visit of the S. West.)
I like the African Mulberry how the leaf veins are yellow
(picture copied from the ferns )
Morus mesozygia
http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Morus+mesozygia
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I will do my best, but as I tell my wife when I’m inadequate in some way…“I’m just a man”.
Very cool picture.
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