Is "World's Best Mulberry" overrated?

[FigoVelo]

Is the ridiculously named World's Best Mulberry, by any chance, generally underwhelming? I ask because I have a tree that a friend started from a cutting either 3 or 4 years ago. It has grown at breakneck pace and, after a heavy pruning last winter, is now a spindly 10 feet tall, with three main branches loaded with fruit. The berries are swelling up and ripening by the hundreds, and they look beautiful. However, they are terrible - sour, a little watery and barely sweet at all. Is this normal for WBM? Will the fruit get better over time? How much better? And how long might I have to wait for this variety to live up to its name?

Thanks for any feedback.

Alastair

[K-Rimes]

Whoever named it "World's Best" did a disservice to the fruit world. I think we should all stop calling it that. It is great for productivity, makes a lot of fruit, but the fruit quality is overall poor and I have a feeling it's just Thai Dwarf that someone named for some reason.

[HibachiDrama]

Yeah, it's the worst mulberry I've ever tasted.

[FigoVelo]

Bummer. I guess this tree is becoming rootstock.

I fell in love with mulberries in Greece 17 years ago, where I biked around the country for weeks and on a daily basis filled my Nalgene water bottle with large pink and black mulberries. I would shake them down, pack in more, and eventually drink a liter at a time of dazzling, juicy mulberry mash. I am trying to recreate a taste of that experience, and WBM is not helping!

Thanks for the thoughts. 

[K-Rimes]

I guess this tree is becoming rootstock.

World's Worst and Thai Dwarf are excellent rootstock material and are easier to root than other mulberries. Seems to make fast growers like Pakistani a little less vigorous which is useful as well.

[pineislander]

I am growing in south Florida. Maybe you folks got something different. I got the World's best direct from Bryce Garling and they are comparable to Thai Dwarf.
Not sour.
It's also possible that the variety performs differently in Florida compared to California. In our springtime we regularly get temps into the 80's or approaching 90's and around 70 at night. How does that compare with the temps you folks are seeing when yours fruit?

[fruitnut1944]

I called him out on the name when it first came out. I got a bit of hate over that. I think he was well intended, just naive. But it's an awful name no matter what.

He had never tasted Persian, ie M. Nigra, which deserves the WBM name.

For me it was like most reports, anything but WBM.

[Fygee]

WBM has taught me to wary of any variety that has such lofty claims in it's name.

It may be arguably the world's best at vigorous growth and berry production, but definitely not in flavor. The vast majority of fruit this year and last year were either flavorless, or all tart. Some tasted alright, and there were a few that were genuinely sweet.

Bryce should be ashamed of himself for naming it that and fooling people into thinking it's of any real quality. Should have been called World's Best Rootstock, which is what my tree is in transition to.

[Flgarden]

I have a thai dwarf from fruitscapes and first impression was: it's sour.
However, later i noticed fruit get sweet with high heat and ripening longer on the tree.
Ana

[achetadomestica]

I have a couple Thai dwarf and now a small World's best growing
Next year I should be able to see if they are the same.
I also have a Chiang 60 growing which also may be the same Mulberry
The Thai dwarf usually fruits a month before my other types start in
late January. The fruit is not special but is better if you let get completely
ripe. It barely stains your hands which seems to go along with the best tasting ones.
It's a small tree and worth keeping because it fruits earlier for me.

[peaceriverorganic]

I think it's pretty decent. 

I've noticed a big improvement in flavor and juiciness after a good rain event. 

When we are in drought, they have little to no flavor.

[sc4001992]

Sometimes on either the World's Best or Thai Dwarf trees, you can get two fruit crops per year. I notice one of the crops has sweeter (slightly) taste than the other. My fruits all finished 2 weeks ago, but now a second crop is starting, and the fruits are much firmer and seems to have improved a little.

his tree is good just to impress the people who pass by it and there are thousands of ripe fruits hanging from it. Not really good for eating sweet mulberry in my opinion, there are many other varieties which are better tasting.

Also, as mentioned, it roots very easy and fruits in 1 year after rooting. I like to use it for rootstock since it roots easily.