Northamerican Alied Fruit Experimenters

Northamerican Alied Fruit Experimenters
nafex list at ibiblio - http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

[nafex] Morus macroura???

Hi all-I received a surprise delivery a couple of days ago-- mulberry cuttings that I had ordered from the GRIN germplasm database over a year ago! Several of the accessions I requested are listed as Morus macroura, which is what GRIN lists as the species of 'Pakistan' mulberry (others list as M. alba). I know that 'Pakistan' is very low chill and not terribly hardy (I'm in Vermont), but my interest was piqued by some of the other M. macroura offerings. Accession 'DMOR 9' for example, resembles 'Pakistan' in fruit form and size, and the description suggests it may be fully hardy in zone 5.

https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=1564196
Check out the narrative provided for this accession:
"Information from Seed Savers, page 375: Large, 1 inch [2.54cm], juicy, red to purplish black fruit similar to blackberries; can be quite delicious. Small, wide spreading, deciduous tree grows 20-30 feet [6.1-9.14m] tall. Very long-lived, becoming gnarled and picturesque. Similar to Russian Mulberry in that it can be used to make a fine hedge; very attractive to birds. Ripens in late spring. Hardy to at least -10 degrees Farenheit. Grows well in Zones 5-6. Native to western Asia"

The only wrinkle I can see offhand is that it says the fruit is 1" (long I assume) while the pictures clearly show the fruit to be about 2.25" long. Maybe this is a simple mixup and the narrative is not relevant to this accession. Does anyone know more about Morus macroura-- its geographic distribution, hardiness, or any other relevant properties?

My thought was to grow a couple of these macroura accessions with protection in the hopes of performing some crosses with hardy M. alba varieties to possibly produce some hardy large fruiting 'pakistan' types.

My only known pollen producer is 'contorted', which is also listed as both M. alba and another species, M. bombycis. Do superior fruiting types-- 'Geraldi', 'Ill. Everbearing', 'Collier', etc. produce male flowers in anyone's experience? I see that GRIN lists "Geraldi Dwarf' as an M. alba x M. nigra, and I wondered immediately how they knew that and what the logistics might be of performing such a cross. I guess the M. nigra would likely have to be container grown and its flowering would have to be manipulated to occur at the same time as the M. alba growing outside. I recall reading about mechanical pollination of kiwis in New Zealand, and how they mix the pollen in a dilute liquid solution and spray that onto the flowers. I thought that was very odd and that it would spoil the pollen until I read more about types of pollen. Apparently wind pollinated plants, which are properly called anemophilous, have pollen with very different pollen which endures this type of treatment.
Has anyone on the list played around with this? I thought something similar might work for paw paw's -- maybe using an atomizer and something inert like corn starch to dilute the pollen.
__________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Northamerican Allied Fruit Experimenters
subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

No comments:

Post a Comment