Compared to??? Other mulberries? Or do you mean are mulberries in general all that good? (if so, then YES!)
Carla in Sac

I have a mulberry tree in my back yard which I carefully avoided eating for years. I thought mulberries were something you could only eat after processing into a jam or jelly. Then someone on this forum (Fruithack) got me to try the fruit on my tree. I could not believe it -- the best tasting berry I ever tried.

My mulberry tree is very old and I did not plant it, so I don't know if it is actually a Persian mulberry or not. It looks just like the pictures, though. Anyway, I actually planted a new mulberry tree in case my old one ever gives out on me. Now that I know about this excellent fruit I don't want to ever be without it again.

Rosefolly

Unfortunately, Persian mulberries don't grow in my climate, so I can't answer specifically about that species. But, we have the hardier kinds here -- black, white, and red. I have 2 seedling black mulberry trees, an 'Illinois Everbearing' grafted tree, and 2 smaller white mulberry trees. The fruit is excellent from all of them, either raw off the tree, or cooked in various ways. I can't believe how many people won't touch a mulberry -- their loss, I guess.

Mulberries are the most underrated fruit I know. I realize they are a pain to pick because they bleed profusely but someone mentioned picking them with a tweezers which is a brilliant idea. My Pakistani is loaded this year. I cannot wait.

Last year I just stood under the tree and browsed like a deer, fingers stained purple and I didn't care. I was thinking of this year spreading an old sheet on the ground and shaking the tree. What have others found to be successful?

Rosefolly

Wow,

Some great responses. I'm really looking forward now to the fruit. I planted them mainly because I have a fruitless one and it is a great tree for my area. Then I read how great the fruit is and I though what the heck.

Now I have a couple of more questions then. Are the Illinos and Pakistan better tasteing then the Persian?

Also where does everyone buy there trees at?

Thanks a ton,

Bucky

i've got space for 2. what should i try? persian, silk hoe, geraldi dwarf?

& another question. i've read that white mulberries are to avoided, & reds & maybe blacks are ok. how can i tell when ordering? do white mulberries have white fruit, & black mulberries have black fruit?

or is there a more obscure definition? i saw one can tell from the type of leaf, but i cant see that when ordering online

There are three kinds of mulberries. White Mulberry, Red Mulberry and Black Mulberry. White mulberry is sometimes thought of as a weedy tree because it can self-seed pretty easily.

Confusingly, white (and the other mulberries) can have fruit that is white, red, purple-black, lavender or even green. The color refers to the color of the buds (or so I have read).

Black mulberries are reportedly one of the best tasting fruit out there, but unfortunately Morus Nigra (black mulberry) is generally not as hardy as the other kinds.

Illinios Everbearing is either a white x red hybrid or a variety of white mulberry (depends upon whom you ask) and it is considered (by many) to be the best tasting of the hardy (to zone 5 at least) mulberry. Be warned, though, this is not a tree available in a dwarf size and controlling its size has been likened to trying to wrestle a firehose (an image I always chuckle over). Having tried to control the size of my own IE I agree with the description.

Be aware that some mulberries sold by landscape companies especially are fruitless (as they are male plants) though they will produce lots and lots of allergy irritating pollen (the fruitless males that is).

There is a way to tell by leaves whether you are looking at a white mulberry or a red mulberry (it has to do with the leaf edge and toothiness), not shape; as my own IE has at least a half a dozen different shaped leaves on it each year many of them appear to look like fig leaves more so than anything else...which would make a certain amount of sense as mulberries and figs are related.

If looking for a mulberry for fruit, try one of the more reputable nurseries (Burnt Ridge, Raintree, Edible Landscaping, One Green World, etc) and try to get one that is named (so you know you're getting a variety and not just a seedling).

My mulberry fruited the year after planting. Be warned that birds and mulberries can make for purple splots on things like siding, decks and cars. Also be aware that fallen fruit will squash underfoot and be tracked into the house, so plant the tree a little way from any doors.

~Chills

Here is a link that might be useful: Burnt Ridge Nursery

The city I am living now has lot of mulberry trees and every year in May and June they are loaded with mulberries. I was really surprised that nobody picked them up, so I was the only one who did so. After few years, i lost interest because they are just so available.

They are delicious, but often, many mulberries have little insects inside.

Hello to all,

Chills,

Thanks a ton for the post. Have you every ordered for burnt ridge? How good are the trees?

What I can't believe is the fact that mulberries seem to be such a great fruit and nobady grows them. Everyone I talk to that has tried them loves them. I have never had the pleasure of trying them. They seem alot like raspberries.

Anyways I'm looking forward to putting in some trees.

Now is the shah toot the same as the persian?

Thanks a ton,

Bucky

Best sources of mulberry info I know of are the book "Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden" by Lee Reich, and websites crfg.org, ediblelandscaping.com, and rollingrivernursery.com. Those are also two of my favorite nurseries period.

I order from Burnt Ridge each year (this makes year # 5). They are my first catalog of choice and I rarely have to search much further (though I have also ordered from a couple other places the last couple years).

My Mulberry (Illinios Everbearing) came from Burnt Ridge and if I had the space I would try adding either Pakistan (I know) or one of the morus nigra varieties (I am pretty daring when it comes to zone denial, I know). worse comes to worse I can pot grow it until I visit my parents and plant it there (The back of the SUV is frequently filled with plants both going and coming back from down south)..

~Chills

I was actually wondering the same thing that Bucky asked on Wed 4/9/08: when you say Persian Mulberry is that the same as Shah toot (Persian for 'King Berry')? Because living in Iran/Persia I have had a lot of Shah Toot and they are aaaaamazingly yummy! They are edible when they are still red, but are suuuuuper sour. once they start turning blackish purple they are superb. They will stain skin, (rather temporarily) and cloth (rather permanently) but sooo worth it. In Iran they hold a sheet under the tree and shake lightly, like one of the other posts mentioned.

Mulberry leaf is a very good greens. I just learn about it. I was able to pick some tender Leaf and made a small plate of green. Next spring, I will pick a lot. You have too pick the tip of new growth. It only need to Stir Fry for two minutes and that they are done. It tastes very good.

I do not think mulberries are really a "favorite fruit", there is a reason they are rarely sold in stores. However, if you want a tree with attractive foliage, a Mulberry can be a great choice, and all those mulberries it will produce are a nice bonus. Many have fond memories from their childhood of eating mulberries off the tree. Mulberry leaves are also a favorite food of caterpillars, so can help promote butterflies in the neighborhood. Pigs and goats can also be fed Mulberry leaves.

If you have never tasted Mulberries before, the black ones are very sweet, but also have very delicate skin and are very juicy and messy. They do have flavor, which is just okay in my opinion. The flavor is a little like blackberries, but the texture is slightly slimy. And the juice does stain.

@parker25mv, Do you have a mulberry tree in your yard? If you do, please try the mulberry leaf. Pick the very top a few new leaf. They are so good tasting after good for 2 min. :-)

Have any of you found a dwarf Persian or Pakistani mulberry? I'm looking for one but don't know where to look.

bridgeinv parker25mv chills71 fruithack gcmastiffs villandry

I have 5 different mulberries: persian, pakistan, white, weeping and oscar. I would say the persian has the best flavor. Mulberry, a bit of blackberry and with the acidity of pomegranate. It is sweet, juicy and the acidity adds complexity to the flavor. That said if I had to pick one it would be the pakistan mulberry. Even though the persian has better flavor the pakistan, the pakistan is still a very tasty fruit but the fruit is bigger and the tree has more fruit than the persian. The fruit is much easier to eat than the persian. The fruit itself is easier to pick and doesn't bleed or very little. The persian seems to explode when touched making it a messier fruit to eat and is harder to pick off the tree. I would suggest using a small scissors to cut off at the base if there is room to make a cut to minimize the bleeding. The weeping is good but taste more like the common mulberry that most people had when as a kid. The white mulberry, I am referring to the color of the fruit, is the sweetest and not much complexity. The taste is like brown sugar and vanilla. Still a fun fruit to eat. I haven't tried the oscar yet but hope to this season. I heard some saying that this a very tasty fruit and prefer it over the pakistan. This mulberry can be eaten at different stages. Tasting more like a raspberry when it is red and tasting the best when it is fully ripe.

Parker25mv I would say the main reason it is not sold in store isn't because of the flavor but the fruit itself is rather delicate and doesn't keep very well. From my experience most mulberries that people had as a kid eat non-cultivated mulberry which the flavor can be just okay far as fruits go. Blackberries you get at the grocery store keep very well but don't taste that good because they are picked too early. If you haven't already, try some of the cultivated varieties such as the persian, Illinois everbearing, or pakistan . You may understand the hype some people have with this fruit.

I bought these 2 varieties from Logees and love them. I like them better than blackberries.

Mulberry ‘Dwarf Everbearing’ (Morus nigra)
Our ‘Dwarf Everbearing’ can be maintained in small 8-10” pots (or even smaller) and with a little pruning a plant kept this small can continue to grow for years. The fruit, like the plant itself, is small (about ½ inch in length) but abundant in its production and extremely sweet when fully ripe. ‘Dwarf Everbearing’ is a good description of this mulberry plant when it’s grown in a container. If it is planted directly in the ground, it will get much larger but when kept in a pot it stays well contained and fruits abundantly on and off throughout the season.

Mulberry ‘Issai’ (Morus alba)
This mulberry is a Japanese cultivar that flowers and fruits successively throughout the growing season. Its fruit is much larger than the ‘Dwarf Everbearing’ and the growth is heavier with a more open growth habit. It starts fruiting at an early age and can be maintained in a pot for years to come with a little help from the pruning shears.

Almost Eden, a great nursery in South Louisiana, sells the Pakistani Mulberry (the one that doesn’t stain or burst/is less messy) for around 20 dollars. I bought mine in December, and it’s growing in leaps in bounds right now. I’m thinking i need to move it further from the house though. I have it around 20 feet from my bedroom window in the backyard. I put it there because it’s out of the way of the Kids’ well taken path from our house to our backdoor neighbors’ house. (i didn’t want them stepping on berries all summer even if these don’t stain) But I’m reading that mulberries need to be 50 feet from the foundation of a house. The spots in our yard that are 50 feet away AND out of the children’s path and their Swingset are shaded by willow oaks, so I guess I’m going to have to let the children traipse through berries. They could go around the mulberry tree, but I know they won’t : /

round and round the mulberry bush the money chased the weasel. The monkey thought ‘teas all in fun, pop goes the weasel!

maybe i can convince them to go around it somehow with that song 🤔

Your foundation - provided it is structurally sound - is not at risk. Mulberry roots are water seekers so the caution is to keep well away from septic fields, irrigation systems and inground plumbing. Aside from the septic, even then the roots should not pose an issue unless already leaking or cracked/damaged.

Oh good! Thanks! our Foundation is a concrete slab built very well in 1974. The original owners/builders were a husband wife architect and interior designer so they did things right. I don’t know anything about plumbing though. We don’t have a septic system, but i don’t know where our pipes go in the yard 🤷🏻‍♀️

i‘m assuming pipes would run towards the front yard and street/away from the house, and the tree is in the back yard around 30 feet from my closet. It is still only 4 feet tall so i can move it if i have to

Wanted to give an update on the Oscar mulberry. I do like the Oscar mulberry better than the Pakistan mulberry. The Oscar is a hybrid from the red and white mulberry. Though it doesn't produce as much fruit as the Pakistan. However, it does fruit a bit later after than Pakistan so they don't over lap which is a good thing. The Persian is the last to "wake up" from its winter sleep.

I did get a dwarf black mulberry. Though it was labelled as a morus nigra it is actually a white mulberry. See link below. It also doesn't even look close to Persian mulberry which is a morus nigra. However, the dwarf does look close to my other white mulberries. It was also the first to wake up, before the Pakistans. Whites wake up first, then reds and then black mulberries. Another indicator that isn't a morus nigras. If you live in a zone below 7 and are growing a dwarf then it isn't a morus nigras. Morus nigras can't handle cold very well. I haven't tasted it yet but it does have fruits this year. I will keep you posted on the flavor compared to the other mulberry trees.

https://www.growingmulberry.org/selection