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thisisme_gw

Morus Nigra Mulberry?

thisisme
10 years ago

I probably should have posted this before my purchase but here goes.

I purchased a Morus Nigra Noir of Spain Black Mulberry. I'm expecting it to arrive this Thursday. A few people on some other forums had said it was the best tasting of all the mulberries. I purchased it from a nursery that sells fifteen mulberry varieties. They are a farm and grow them all as large trees too. They also say itâÂÂs the best tasting and that when they are ripe they bring every person who comes to their farm to this variety to sample.

The thing is they had never sold one here before. The owner told me they need chill hours and was not sure it would fruit until I told her my Illinois Everbearing fruits reliably. I was also told that this variety is a slow grower. Nothing at all like my IE which grows like crazy in full Arizona sun. She also said it may take a few years to fruit. Unlike my IE which fruited when I planted it and the cuttings I'm attempting to root have fruit on them too.

So my late questions are these.....

Has anyone here grown a Morus Nigra here in the valley?

Does it do well in full sun?

How fast does it grow?

How long did it take to fruit?

How do you like it's fruit?

Thisisme hoping somebody has some good news for me.

Comments (11)

  • centurion_
    10 years ago

    Morus Nigra Noir of Spain will not survive in your area thisisme. It will shrivel and die. The only thing for you to do is to alert me the moment it arrives. I will drive down, pick it up, bring it home, and plant it at my place. They do great up here in Cottonwood.

    Hey...you're a friend. It's the least I can do. No problem...really. :-)

    This post was edited by Centurion_ on Mon, Apr 15, 13 at 23:44

  • thisisme
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you Centurion. I was hoping that would be the case. See you soon.

    Thisisme laughing out loud!!!

  • AJBB
    10 years ago

    I think the only real concern to consider is that the morus nigra berries stain badly. If the birds manage to get to the berries, prepare for a lot of red splotches that will stain permanently across your plot. Otherwise, your tree should do well here.

  • azbolt
    10 years ago

    As well as other mulberries do here, I can't imagine this one would do "badly". As long as you can keep it alive through its first summer! My mulberries are ripening now and I'm really enjoying them. I think my Oscar is my favorite of the bunch, Pakistan is really good too. My IE is ok taste wise but the berries are quite small. I have a white variety that sprouted from seed, that I presume came through the irrigation pipes, that is really good....whoops, that was a tangent, ok, thread back to Morus NIgra. :-)

    Kevin

  • thisisme
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks guys, I feel a little better about my purchase. I was a little concerned considering this is considered to be the slowest growing simi-dwarf least hardy of all mulberry trees.

    I keep all the other fruit trees in my yard short for easy picking. If I had room I would plant a Pakistani from Shamus's too but I don't. There is one space left in my yard for a 15'-30' mulberry. This is the one going in that spot.

  • Fascist_Nation
    10 years ago

    The only downside I see is this is a very marginal time to plant trees with summer coming on. Not that there is anything to be done about it unless you want to pot it up and put it on the east side of a tall tree until Oct.

  • centurion_
    10 years ago

    I agre completely, fascist. He should send the tree to me.

  • thisisme
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I've lived here for the last thirteen years. This is not my first rodeo. I know how to protect a tree if it needs it. I expect the tree to be small. It's a potted tree though. If it has a lot of roots I won't worry about it.

    Since its not expected to fruit this year. Once it starts putting on new growth. I plan on bumping up the fertilizers to increase its size before it fruits next year.

  • greendesert
    10 years ago

    I planted a Morus Nigra - Black Beauty a couple of years ago and it fruited for the first time this spring. I'm picking fruits now, but it's not producing quite enough yet. Between the 5 of us, we only get to have one berry at a time. I hope it will pick up production.
    Although I don't have any other varieties to compare the taste to, I think they taste pretty good. I grew up eating them several decades ago so I missed them. These are black and supposedly can stain pretty bad but I really don't give a crap about the staining issue. This variety isn't supposed to get much bigger than 15' tall. My tree grew from barely 2 ft tall in June 2011 to maybe 12 ft tall, but now it is acting like it wants to develop a weeping habit. (I actually would prefer it to be bigger)

  • greendesert
    10 years ago

    "The only downside I see is this is a very marginal time to plant trees with summer coming on."
    @FascistNation: I planted my Black Beauty at the end of April if not May 2011. I put a trashcan over it for a few days during the heat of the day and kept it watered, after a week, it had absolutely no problem with the heat and grew like a weed. It is now at least 12 ft tall. Those things are pretty tough trees.

  • thisisme
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you for posting greendesert. The tree arrived yesterday and is about 18" tall. Morus Nigra fruit on second year wood which is why they take longer to fruit than other mulberries. Most other mulberries fruit on the current years growth. The good news it you are going to have a lot more berries next year than this year unless you prune it. If you prune it you will have to wait till you have more second year wood.

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