ISO Male Mulberry Breeding Trees

[TheBigFatFig]

I'm primarily looking for dwarf or maybe semi dwarf fruitless mulberry trees for crossing. Especially interested if there is a male with everbearing traits?

I have a male weeping on the way and a second variety weeping or pendulous type female to compliment the Teas weeping I have which has alba type fruits.. the pendulous form all seem to be Albas...

im not sure if Morus Nigra can even cross but If there is one that is zone 8 hardy i may be interested. A Rubra leaning hybrid with some lineage would be interesting... a male pakistan /macroura too

Anyone grown seeds out to find a dwarfing male related to something with decent fruit traits? Or a smaller growth habit/tight nodes such as Girardi?
There doesnt seem to be a male mulberry market is there a place I should look? I've been scratching around

Just planting seeds for now!

[sc4001992]

I have a large male mulberry tree which is now flowering yearly after 4yrs. It has short nodes but I wouldn't consider it a dwarf tree. It grows tall (10-15ft) every year so I trim it down to 10 ft yearly. If you want to trade some cuttings for your weeping female mulberry then let me know. Since I have so many different mulberry varieties it must be a cross of some of those. My tree has a dense canopy, branches are not as thick as the Black Pakistan, more like the White Pakistan/Australian Green branches but much more dense branches.

Here's a few photos of the male tree.

[TheBigFatFig]

What males do you have around that maybe the father? I'm leaning towards dwarf but I like that the nodes are close maybe a cross of thai dwarf lol... that is a fruit machine...

How often does it produce catkins?

[sc4001992]

I'm not sure, there is one across the street which is probably over 50yrs old, My seedling tree canopy looks like that one. It has catkins once a year.

[TheBigFatFig]

I may consider giving that a try it must be from a decent fruit bearing tree I'm just concerned because I'm trying to avoid very large trees. I'm thinking of my weeping tree is small enough it might be a decent cross or pre-cross... also I have to figure out how to isolate pollens too I might need to travel around and put cuttings in the woods ... can you share what was the closest potential mother tree?

[sc4001992]

It would be my female mulberries (23 varieties) in my yard.

[Seattlefiggirl]

i have a few morus alba seedlings that i can offer to trade in fall/winter. these are commonly used grafting more desired cultivars. im not sure if they will be male or white/red/black fruits. i havent research much in what seedlings produce. maybe someone here can tell is more. the only dwarfing trees that i know of are dwarf everbearing and geradi dwarf but then they are female mulberries.

[TheBigFatFig]

I'm sure there are some males out there but no one seems to be discussing the topic of breeding Mulberries... i have a couple of large male alba which fertilized teas weeping recently and I've got alot of seedlings from the batch. I'm hoping that someone has bred Girardi or the common dwarf everbearing to achieve some pollinators or maybe knows about the siblings of these when they were bred.

They're so easy i want to grow out a lot of them out for traits and hopefully get big tasty fruits too.. the coolest tree ever would be a dwarf weeping/pendulous with large Macroura fruits so far Teas fruits are sweet with a hint of grassy and smaller than I would like. I tasted the regular dwarf everbearing and that motivated me some more

Thanks for the offer I've got something like 150 little ones going already from the weeping cross.. I've got extra seeds from that cross too which I forgot to mention. I wouldn't mind some
going to where someone has the space and
desire to grow some out

I really want to lean towards smaller breeders with good traits in production and fruit size and cross with other dwarfs and also the weeping varieties

[drew51]

Sounds like you have some good ideas as what you would like to achieve. I myself breed brambles, and stone fruit. Just for fun. Mostly brambles.
I have a morus nigra seedling, but I don't know what sex the tree is yet. It takes 6-8 years for them to flower from seed (nigra, unsure on alba?). If male, I will use it in breeding. But I'm fairly certain they don't cross with the other mulberriy species? I would breed for hardiness only. I want to try and get a nigra that will grow and fruit in 6a. So far the most hardiest grows in 7a, and my seedling is from that line. I expect it to fruit next year.

[TheBigFatFig]

I've been wanting to look further into Morus Nigra I'm not too
far off in 8a but so far I only have one labeled as Morus Nigra and its possibly something else

You might look into 'Trader' I want to know opinions about it. I made a separate post about it with a write up. I don't believe its an M. Nigra but allegedly one of the most cold hardy fruit producers. The mother tree is in N. Dakota zone 3b and has been there for over 100 years according to the write up (since 1892)

Which of the Nigra varieties is hardy to zone 7? Do you have other cold hardy varieties? Please keep me posted on that one! I'm in zone 8 but we also had 2f during Uri and a week below freezing...I'd like to stick to a variety that can take a fluke if i ever grow and/or breed one... I dont hear much about m.nigra crossing with others either.. do you have a male m nigra nearby?

I did manage a few seeds from worlds best. They were not even matured fruits but the seeds are a bit larger than alba seed. A few ppl are saying that they are identical to thai dwarf which is a beast in production... youd think ppl would be doing all of the chemistry to cross m Nigra with something that productive

[drew51]

Trader is not a morus nigra. None are that hardy, it's probably a rubra and didn't come from Germany. Rubra and nigra look a lot alike. One way to tell is the dark buds nigra has. The photos of Trader do not have the dark buds. Nigra is more a species tree with few cultivars which are practically identical. It can be grown to zone 5 but it often will not fruit until in zone 8. Even is zone 8 fruiting is sparse. Not many grow it outside of zone 9.
The seedling I have is from a mother tree in Bulgaria in zone 7, possibly even 6. It is a lone tree as few survive long in zone 7 or 6. The tree produced some male flowers and is how I got seed. No other nigras within hundreds of miles.
Many people try them, but few keep the trees as the fruiting problems occur. Again trees will survive in colder zones but seem to always fail to thrive.
I don't have any males, but if my tree is male, I will breed with it. I'll buy a Back Beauty and go from there. Often rubra , alba, or hybrid trees are sold as nigra's. It's not easy finding a true nigra.
If you need males buy rootstock as half will be male. Burnt Ridge nursery sells decent rootstocks of alba.
I grow the more hardy mulberries. Many alba's will not grow well here, Oscar, Illinois everybearing, any white, and Silk Hope are more hardy. They do fine here. Shangri La, Pakistan are not as hardy and will not grow well in zone 6. Often losing top growth every year but will come back from the roots. World's Best, Taiwan everbearing and such are not hardy enough for my zone 6a.

Here is the story of that lone tree in Bulgaria. My plants are seeds from this tree. (I have 2 of them, but one is in bad shape)
https://bnr-bg.translate.goog/vidin/..._x_tr_pto=wapp

[TheBigFatFig]

Regarding Trader I just meant for cold hardiness it might be an interesting cultivar... at least one site does list it as M. Nigra.

There is a Rubra contest for finding an authentic Rubra in case... maybe harder to find than M. Nigra. allegedly everything known to be Rubra is a hybrid... the information for the contest is as growingmulberry.org at the top (I'm pretty sure you knew that eh)

just unfortunate about Morus Nigra I have placed them far into the back of my mind because I'm short on space for pushing the growing zone limits...

Thats a neat storyline to follow. Hopefully you can help change the growing zones for the species

[TheBigFatFig]

In case someone else is breeding for other traits I've got one that leans towards unique. I know Albas can have variable leaves, the two large males in the back have relatively stable leaves...they mostly have the common shape without lobes and just a few with lobes, it takes a few moments to spot one

I've been picking suckers off of these for years and didnt notice until I considered grafting to these that the lower suckers make a much different leaf shape. They are shaped like Oscar but maybe a little more narrow. I dont know what they are sexwise but really cool if you ask me! They look like figs

Big trees unfortunately they have grown several feet just this year... I can only guess these males were high grafts...

[drew51]

Fig leaves often show up on young cultivars. As they get older spade leaves mostly appear. I have seen these leaves mostly on young nigra plants.
On trader the fruit is so small it does not interest me. Looking for larger fruit on hardy mulberries.