Morus nigra, the "Black" or "Persian" Mulberry, is referred to as the "Shah Toot" or "Shahtoot" in ancient (and I believe modern) Persian, which means "the king's or 'superior' mulberry." It is my understanding that there was originally only one Morus nigra tree, which is believed to have been grown in the royal gardens of a Shah in ancient Persia (I've never heard speculation connecting it to a particular Shah or century, but references to it go back thousand of years). [It may actually have originated in pre-history.] Its genes are unique, so all varieties of M. nigra are the result of bud sports with relatively minor mutations. The word "Black" does not refer to the color of its fruit, but rather to the color of its dormant buds (in winter) which are uniquely black. Unfortunately, many people refer to any mulberry with black fruit as a "Black Mulberry." This is an incorrect usage. M. nigra is genetically unique in that it has 308 individual chromosomes - 154 chromosome pair (n=154). Mulberries in general are diploid plants with 28 individual chromosomes - 14 chromosome pair (n=14), so you can see that M. nigra has some remarkably complex generic history behind it. It is believed to be a complex hybrid who's ancestral species are extinct. The photos posted by Silverada show leaves that appear to be M. nigra. If he/she can tell us the color of the buds on the dormant tree, it would answer your question. I have not yet heard back from Silverada, so I can only hope for an answer at this point. Of course it is possible that the tree is producing male flowers, and that they are sterile and produce no pollen. I just don't have enough information at this time to guess.

Me, too! In fact, the more I thought about everything last night, the more I wondered whether the roots of my $4 clearance table Dendrobium were in jeopardy being in the ceramic jar it came in, tightly packed with moss, and no drainage holes. I'm glad I checked... the roots were not happy! I unpacked the poor thing, cleaned it up, dusted the root area with a wee bit of Captan, and re-planted it in a larger pot with orchid bark. It's too dry here for mounts, but tightly packed moss in a ceramic jar won't cut it, either! I don't post too often, but I do read... and I'm learning a lot! Thanks to everyone who shares! More mount photos, please!

I realize this is an old thread but wanted to give my 2 cents. When I started to grow my AV NOIDs last year I started 2 dome containers. One I used root start with half of the leaves cut at the top and the other half I used full leaves. The other dome lid I didn't use rooting hormone with the same half cut the top of the leaves and half uncut. Each box grew and the half leaves grew faster. They didn't live to produce other babies after the harvest but the whole leaves did. My unscientific experiment results are that hormone didn't help but half leaves did if you want faster results but risk only one set of babies. :) Just one experiment maybe I will do another and take pics to document. I need to get some leaves to do it. Oh and one other strange thing I noticed...the ruffly (girl) leaves survived better! Strange huh!

N1942.... It seems that your ? got overlooked by accident. Sorry about that. What I would do is start a new thread on the site or on the pest one and ask the same ? with pics if that is possible. Then you will correct diagnosis and you might even Rhizo who has saved a many of my trees from being wrecked! Suzy......... An open mix is one that drains freely of water and fertilizer salts deposits, allows good gas exchange amoung teh root zone, holds it's structure by breaking down ever so slowly, and allows you to water as often as you would like without fear of root rot.3 M.G does not have any of these properties and unfortunately causing the problems you are seeking help on. In fact, M.G is the worst mix to use unless you plan on repotting every other month or so. As soon as any water touches that mix, it's decompose quickly time. Mike