BRIX and pH Values for Various Yangmei Cultivars

 

I measured the BRIX and pH values for 9 different selection of yangmei on June 15, and for 5 selections on June 24. Whenever possible, 3 fruits were used to get the average values. The summary of data in the table below.

More details in the linked videos for each round of measurements.

June 15

https://youtu.be/TH3K1CgaZUs?is=RwCMfi8mdlf-TKSE

June 24

https://youtu.be/gkI4S_Ods1c?is=XX0gqWb_I8rjmt1w

Summer sale of sciowood in 2026

 

This post describes the greenwood cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in June of 2026. 

We will open the sale on June 1 at 6 pm Pacific Time. The sale will last between 7-14 days depending on the volume of early orders. The minimum order for this sale is $50. We will start cutting and shipping on or after June 17, and this will depend on the weather. We don’t ship if our local air temperature is above 92F. The shipping options will be 1 or 2 days UPS to the US addresses only.

We offer the wholesale discounts and these will be billed through custom invoices. A minimum wholesale order is $500 with at least 10 cuttings for each accession. Contact me at marta@reallygoodplants.com for more details. 

All species will be cut to order. This kind of wood doesn’t store for a long time, and should be used in under a week or two upon receiving.

For most cultivars you will find the links to our blog and/or YouTube channel. Some are missing, as we are still working on getting the pictures and descriptions for them.

Cherry, pistachio, apricot, peach, nectarine, and loquat wood should be grafted. We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, Adara plum, all figs, and many mulberries.  Here is the post on mulberry rooting abilities you may want to check out. The greenwood cuttings can be rooted in the same manner like dormant cuttings, please see this video. They can also be  rooted in a cloner. If you plan on rooting some material, I would still recommend grafting (or budding) a piece for a backup. On our YouTube channel we have the Grafting Playlist with a number of videos covering various grafting options, tools, etc.

The length and diameter of the cuttings will depend on the species. We will supply at least 6 inch long cuttings with at least 3 buds. We might need to split some single mulberry cuttings with long internodes into two pieces.

BRIX and pH Values for 42 Accessions of Mulberries

 All fruits were harvested on May 1, 2026 from a single location in Sacramento Valley, California.

BRIX numbers reflect the dissolved sugars content, the higher BRIX, the more sugars are in the fruit. 

pH numbers reflect the acidity of the fruit.  The lower pH corresponds to more acid in the fruits.

We believe that all long white mulberries such as Australian Green, Pakistan White, Saharanpur Local and Unknown Long White are the same.  However, their BRIX numbers are different here. Australian Green is the most developed large tree, and Saharanpur Local is a small shaded tree on only a partially compatible rootstock. Pakistan White is a young tree and not shaded by other trees. Uknown Long White is a graft on a multigrafted tree. The tree health, and the sun exposure affect the BRIX numbers and possibly the pH too.

We also suspect that Tice and Estero Giant might be identical, while they produced different BRIX number.

Red Himalayan Taiwanese Long was at the very end of its fruiting, and normally has very long fruits similar Skinner.  Red Himalayan Murray's fruits are also normally longer, these were at the end of its season too.

In the below table, most selections were at their perfect maturity.  Only Four Seasons, Taiwanese Dwarf, Chiang Mai #60, and Buluklu will need to be reevaluated at a later date. 

The BRIX and pH data is based on 3 juiced fruits and two technical replicates. 

Australian Green and Pakistan White BRIX reading were above the upper range of the refractometer we used.  Their values are above 35.

BRIX data is an important component of fruit flavor, but the degree of acidity and various specific compounds will influence the final flavor perception too. The taste preferences are also different for different people.  

My evaluation of individual cultivars can be found here in this Playlist on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiwjdtJGDLQcA0f5VTpgCIs9vaPh01iqe&si=gez5QHy43hiLLnSs

We sell cuttings for rooting or grafting from our website in winter and early June reallygoodplants.com

Pilot Test of Acidity in Mulberry Cultivars

 Apparently, the consumer electronics manufacturers made a lot of advances in the recent years. I just got a simple pH meter for food and tested it on six mulberry cultivars. Looks like it works like a charm. I was looking into the complex scientific pH meters for low volumes and those are some expensive pieces of equipment! Apparently, all I needed was a $37 device from our largest online retailer. 

The mulberry cultivars I selected for this pilot had contrasting amounts of acidity and the device detected these. Over the season, I hope to measure the pH values across all cultivars we grow.

Below are the data from today. I was lucky to find a couple of fruits of Murray’s Himalayan which I suspected might be the most acidic one. It produced the lowest pH out of these six cultivars. 

BRIX and Weight Data for 33 Mulberry Cultivars Harvested on April 20, 2026

 

In the below table, not all selections were at their perfect maturity.  The cultivars with low BRIX numbers will need to be re-evaluated at later dates.  

We believe that all long white mulberries such as Australian Green, Pakistan White and Saharanpur Local are the same.  However, their BRIX numbers are different here. Australian Green is the most developed large tree, and Saharanpur Local is a small shaded tree on only a partially compatible rootstock. 

We also suspect that Tice and Estero Giant might be identical, but we only have a small graft of Estero Giant on a multigrafted tree. Tice is a large vigorous tree and produced higher BRIX. 

Red Himalayan Naples normally has very long fruits, longer than Skinner.  On this date we only found smaller and partially ripe fruits. 

There are probably few other things I need to warn about, but don't remember now. We will try to do another round of evaluations when the later season mulberries are ready.

The weight measurements are average of 5 fruits with the exception of Naples, where only 3 fruits are used. The BRIX data is based on 3-5 juiced fruits and two technical replicates.

BRIX data is an important component of fruit flavor, but the degree of acidity and various specific compounds will influence the final flavor perception too. The taste preferences are also different for different people.  

My evaluation of individual cultivars can be found here in this Playlist on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiwjdtJGDLQcA0f5VTpgCIs9vaPh01iqe&si=gez5QHy43hiLLnSs

We sell cuttings for rooting or grafting from our website in winter and early June reallygoodplants.com

Graft Compatibility of Cherry with Adara Plum

 This post describes my personal experience with grafting compatibility of various sour cherries, Dukes, and one sweet cherry cultivar with Adara plum.  The only cherry that wasn't compatible in my personal experience, based on just two grafts is Schattenmorelle. Tamaris sour cherry grafted onto Adara, but never grew well; I suspect due to the unsuitable climate for this cherry selection.

The following cultivars were successfully grown on Adara rootstocks and/or interstems:

1.  Balaton - Duke cherry
2.  Bell Magnifique - Duke cherry
3.  Bianco Rosato di Piedmonte - sweet cherry
4.  Chornokirka - sour cherry
5.  Csengodi Csocros - Duke cherry
6.  Danube - Duke cherry
7.  Duke - Duke cherry
8.  Erdi - sour cherry
9.  Favorit - Duke cherry
10.  Jubileum - Duke cherry
11.  Kantor Janosi - sour? cherry
12.  Oblachinskaya - sour cherry
13.  Pandy 38 - Duke cherry
14.  Sumadinka - sour cherry
15.  UZ1 - sour cherry

Below are the photos of the trees on Adara rootstocks or interstems taken on March 24, 2026.

Balaton and Favorit

Belle Magnifique and Pandy 38 on Adara

Bianco Rosato di Piedmonte, Erdi, Oblachinskaya, and Sumadinka on Adara

Chornokirka on Adara

Csengodi Csocros on Adara Interstem on Lovell Rootstock

Danube and Kantor Janosi on Adara

Duke on Adara

Jubileum on Adara

Sumadinka on Adara

Sumadinka on Adara interstem on Lovell rootstock

UZ1 on Adara interstem on Lovell rootstock

More info about the above cherries is available in this playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiwjdtJGDLQfkhpBr6-ffl-H8wnuRHjiR&si=6sZWmdjnsRIcDB8m

Cuttings Sale in December 2025

 This post describes the cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in December 2025. This year we are offering wood from 594 different cultivars.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on December 12.

 1. We will cut and ship the orders as soon as the wood is ready. The deciduous wood will be cut when the trees become dormant. The wood of white sapote, rose apple, yangmei, and avocado do not store for a long time. These should be used in under a week or two after receiving. 

We did our best estimate on the amount we can cut, and we might be able to restock some cultivars after the shipment of early orders.

 2. The information about most of our cultivars can be found on our blog and YouTube. 

3. Most of the material offered here should be grafted; however, there are some accessions that can be rooted.  We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, kei apples, figs, grapes, rose apple, sour cherry PV Hybrid #1, Adara plum, and many mulberries.  You may want to check out our post on mulberry rooting abilities, as well as our rooting video. If you plan on rooting some material, we would still recommend grafting a piece for a backup. 

All pomegranates root fine.  If you want to graft these, make sure to graft onto strong young shoots.  More about grafting in this post.

 4. The cuttings’ length and diameter will depend on the species.  We will supply at least 6-inch-long cuttings with at least 3 buds.  A 6-inch-long apricot scion can have up to 20 buds, while some vigorous mulberries might have 6- to 8-inch-long internodes.  On average, mulberry cuttings will be longer than avocado, apricots, and feijoa. Some mulberries grow very thick shoots. If you are planning on getting the Himalayan types like Naples, Steve Murray, etc., these may be up to 1 inch in diameter and will require established rootstocks to graft onto, or you should prepare to chip-bud onto your smaller rootstocks. 

Cuttings Sale in June of 2025

 This post describes the greenwood cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in June of 2025.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on June 5.

• All species will be cut to order. This kind of wood doesn’t store for a long time, and should be used in under a week or two after receiving.

• Our summer temperatures are pretty high in June, and the shipping transit time may negatively affect the wood viability.   We will only offer the one and two days UPS shipping options, as well as local pickup in Davis, CA. Your shipping charges will be calculated according to your location and you will be presented with your mailing options. If our weather is too hot, we will postpone shipping until the conditions are more favorable. 

• For most cultivars you will find the links to our blog and/or YouTube channel. Some are missing, as we are still working on getting the pictures and descriptions for them.

• Cherry, pistachio, apricot, peach, nectarine, and loquat wood should be grafted. We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, Adara plum, all figs, and many mulberries. Here is the post on mulberry rooting abilities you may want to check. The greenwood cuttings can be rooted in the same manner like dormant cuttings, please see this video. They can also be rooted in a cloner. If you plan on rooting some material, I would still recommend grafting (or budding) a piece for a backup. On our YouTube channel we have the Grafting Playlist with a number of videos covering various grafting options, tools, etc.

• The length and diameter of the cuttings will depend on the species. We will supply at least 6 inch long cuttings with at least 3 buds. We might need to split some single mulberry cuttings into two pieces as they might be too long for economical shipping. Some of our mulberry cultivars have 8-inch internodes. 

Cuttings Sale in December 2024

 

This post describes the cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in December 2024. This year we are offering wood from 440 different cultivars.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on December 1.

 1. We will cut and ship the orders as soon as the wood is ready. The deciduous wood will be cut when the trees become dormant. Please see the recently posted video about dormancy in various mulberry cultivars. The evergreen species will be cut ASAP. The wood of white sapote, rose apple, and avocado do not store for a long time. These should be used in under a week or two after receiving. 

We did our best estimate on the amount we can cut, and we might be able to restock some cultivars after the shipment of early orders.

 2. The information about most of our cultivars can be found on our blog and YouTube. 

3. Most of the material offered here should be grafted; however, there are some accessions that can be rooted.  We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, kei apples, figs, grapes, rose apple, sour cherry PV Hybrid #1, Adara plum, and many mulberries.  You may want to check out our post on mulberry rooting abilities, as well as our rooting video. If you plan on rooting some material, we would still recommend grafting a piece for a backup. 

All pomegranates root fine.  If you want to graft these, make sure to graft onto strong young shoots.  More about grafting in this post.

 4. The cuttings’ length and diameter will depend on the species.  We will supply at least 6-inch-long cuttings with at least 3 buds.  A 6-inch-long apricot scion can have up to 20 buds, while some vigorous mulberries might have 6- to 8-inch-long internodes.  On average, mulberry cuttings will be longer than avocado, apricots, and feijoa. Some mulberries grow very thick shoots. If you are planning on getting the Himalayan types like Naples, Steve Murray, etc., these may be up to 1 inch in diameter and will require established rootstocks to graft onto, or you should prepare to chip-bud onto your smaller rootstocks. 

 

Figs in 2024

The next fig cuttings sale will open sometime in December on reallygoodplants.com 

The summer and fall of 2024 were pretty fruitful, with a wide diversity of figs producing excellent fruits. All my fig trees planted in 2022 have fruited. Many trees planted in 2023 also produced fruits, although normally later in the season. 

The figs I had fruits this year from are:

1. Bass Favorite
2. Black Madera
3. Black Tuscan
4. Bordissot Blanca Negra
5. Bordissot Negra Rimada
6. Bourjasotte Gris
7. Bourjasotte Noire
8. Col de Dame Blanc
9. Col de Dame Gris
10. Col de Dame Noir
11. Coll de Dama Gegantina
12. Coll de Dama Rimada
13. Cravens Cravings
14. De la Senyora (Hivernica)
15. Desert King
16. Emallyn's Purple
17. Excel
18. Figo Preto de Torres Novas
19. Galicia Negra
20. Genoviese Nero (AF)
21. Hative de Argentueil
22. Igo
23. Ischia Black
24. Italian 258
25. Longue d'Aout
26. Maltese Beauty
27. Martinenca Rimada
28. Negra d'Agde
29. Panache
30. PAS
31. Pastillier
32. Ponte Tresa
33. Red Lebanese
34. Rigato de Soliento
35. Socorro Black
36. Tashkent
37. TV3
38. UCR187-25
39. UCR K-6-5
40. Valle Negra
41. Violette de Soleis
42. White Madeira #1
43. Woodland Green
44. Zidi
45. Palmata hybrid DFIC0023

I often get asked, which fig is my favorite? Well, not all figs fruit at the same time, to do the head-to-head comparisons. However, I think the overall favorite was the Woodland Green in this season. It is a large green fig with juicy bright red interior. In the picture below it is the most left pile of fruits. Desert king in the lower part of the picture with PAS on the right. Woodland Green is the most juicy with the most bright/sharp and complex flavor.

This video https://youtube.com/shorts/Fp1427kC3fk goes over all of these three excellent figs.

Woodland Green is a productive midseason ripening fig, most likely of the Adriatic type.  Another video cover just Woodland Green:  https://youtube.com/shorts/Sc1BKP0xkDM

I really enjoyed eating majority of the fig fruits. Below will be the pictures of the plates I made sometime in summer.  All figs there are wonderful fruits. This video covers my tasting results for these figs: https://youtu.be/ySZnar_bKJw

I compared the Black Madera, Black Tuscan, and Craven's Cravings. Some consider them the same cultivar, but they seem different to me. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/d6UJY67Y7Q8

https://youtube.com/shorts/9ASqkCBWl7Q

https://youtube.com/shorts/Pbrqlyq1E6o

Desert King, Rigato de Soliento, Figo Preto de Torres Novas, Emallyn's Purple, and UCR 187-25 produced pretty nice breba fruits.

The only two figs I really did't care about are Excel and UCR K-6-5, and these are going out of my collection.

As I'm writing this post, there are 83 videos in my Figs Playlist on YouTube.  Each video features one of more fig fruits.  The Fig Playlist link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiwjdtJGDLQf9PALpj-VnX7LevoxrQcf9

Most trees grew vigorously this summer. In winter we are offering the fig cutting of many cultivars on our sales site reallygoodplants.com

My rooting video is here: https://youtu.be/Owewb8MtPMc

Cuttings sale in June of 2024

Update: No shipping after June 27, 2024 and until the winter sale. The orders placed after June 27 need to be picked up in person. 

This post describes the cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in June of 2024.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on June 1.

• This is our first ever summer sale of greenwood, and all species will be cut to order. This kind of wood doesn’t store for a long time, and should be used in under a week or two after receiving.

• Our summer temperatures are pretty high in June, and the shipping transit time may negatively affect the wood viability.   We will only offer the one and two days shipping options, as well as local pickup in Davis, CA. Your shipping charges will be calculated according to your location and you will be presented with your mailing options. If our weather is too hot, we will postpone shipping until the conditions are more favorable. Note that we may delay the 2-day shipments if the weather is too hot somewhere else, e.g. the Louisville International Airport (UPS shipments) or their destination.

• For many cultivars you will find the links to our blog and/or YouTube channel. Some are missing, as we are still working on getting the pictures and descriptions for them.

• Most of the material offered here should be grafted, however, there are some accessions that could be rooted. We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, Kei Apples, Adara plum, rose apple, grapes, and many mulberries. Here is the post on mulberry rooting abilities you may want to check. If you plan on rooting some material, I would still recommend grafting (or budding) a piece for a backup.  More about grafting in this post.

• The length and diameter of the cuttings will depend on the species. We will supply at least 6 inch long cuttings with at least 3 buds. We might need to split some single mulberry cuttings with three buds into two pieces as they might be too long for economical shipping. Some of our mulberry cultivars have 8-inch internodes. 

Frost tolerance of Himalayan Mulberries

 The past winter of 2023-2024 was the second test for my Himalayan mulberries frost tolerance. I have five two-years old trees of four cultivars, Naples, two Skinners, Taiwanese Long, and DMOR9. I also have one year old trees of these cultivars plus two trees of Steve Murray Himalayan.

The new shoot development observed on March 22 of 2024 confirmed the frost tolerance data I had last year: https://youtu.be/mtrUIJL1sJ8?si=fSJ3mkQf4iAF-AbU

As recorded in spring of 2023, Naples was the most damaged by the frosts and DMOR9 was the least damaged. 

This spring of 2024 recoding is under this link https://youtu.be/vFbuMc4Nhb0?si=-DkNqvUMi4aprtCN

Our lowest temperature this past winter was 24F.

While I have a new one-year old Napes, I could not clearly see if it will re-sprout or not. I may add the info on this later.

The frost tolerance of the cultivars I grow as following, starting from the most tolerant and ending with the most frost sensitive:

• DMOR9
• Taiwanese Long
• Skinner
• Steve Murray 
• Naples 

The scions of these cultivars might be available during our winter and spring sales at reallygoodplants.com

Blooming time for various apricot cultivars in Sacramento Valley

 

Update from April 1, 2024

Apricot cultivars still blooming with unopened buds too:

• Iskra 8
• Altair 4
• Canada White
• Albasun
• Seedling of Small White 

The Short with there is on the YouTube:

https://youtube.com/shorts/dt1hsJmcLaw?si=HpRtxNwBbyD00Hbw

Update from March 26, 2024

Dudi and Alisa apricots have open flowers.

Update from March 21, 2024

Five cultivars are still mostly in the closed bud stage:

• Iskra 4
• Iskra 8
• Seedling of Small White
• Canada White
• Altair 4

The link to the video taken on March 21 https://youtube.com/shorts/MRMhl6ODwj4?si=viccDo3Ela6eC-8s

Below is the data for 32 cultivars as recorded on March 13, 2024

Some additional cultivars in the orchard might show some flowering buds later. 

The scions of some of the above listed cultivars might be available at reallygoodplants.com during the winter and spring sales.

Cuttings sale in March 2024

This posts describes the cuttings sale on reallygoodplants.com in March of 2024.

The sale will open at 6 PM PST on March 1.

1. All deciduous cuttings and scions were precut while dormant and stored at 40°F.

2. The evergreen species will be cut to order. The wood of white sapote, cherimoya, rose apple, and avocado do not store for a long time. These should be used in under a week or two after receiving.

3. Some cultivars are not linked to descriptions. There are various reasons for this. Some are easily searchable on the web, like many apples, plums, peaches, a couple of Opuntias, etc. And the others are novel in circulation, and we have not yet evaluated them in detail. These are for gardeners looking for new gerplasm to test in their conditions.

4. Most of the material offered here should be grafted, however, there are some accessions that could be rooted. We successfully rooted all Elaeagnus species, Kei Apples, sour cherry PV Hybrid #1, Adara plum, rose apple, and many mulberries. Here is the post on mulberry rooting abilities you may want to check. If you plan on rooting some material, I would still recommend grafting a piece for a backup. This time we also offer the cuttings of Osage orange, which are typical rootstock for Che. These will root and, will grow fast, and can be grafted with Che the following year.

All pomegranates root fine. If you want to graft them, make sure to graft onto strong young shoots. More about grafting in this post.

All Opuntia pads, as well as grapes will root.

5. The length and diameter of the cuttings will depend on the species. We will supply at least 6 inch long cuttings with at least 3 buds. A 6 inch long apricot scion can have up to 20 buds, while some vigorous mulberries might have 6-8 inch long internodes. On average, mulberry cuttings will be longer than avocado, apricots, and feijoa. Some mulberries grow very thick shoots. If you are planning on getting the Himalayan types like Naples, Steve Murray, etc, these may be up to 1 inch in diameter and will require established rootstocks to graft onto, or prepare yourself for chip budding your smaller rootstocks.

White Sapote Golden Globe

 This is the most late fruiting cultivar for me in Davis. The tree is very vigorous and fast growing. The fruits are medium in size, excellent tasting. The flavor has caramel notes in it, they are very sweet and creamy, the skin is edible. The fruits in the pictures below were harvested on February 9, 2024. 

The scions are usually available during our spring sale at reallygoodplants.com

The first fruit trees to bloom in 2024

As of February 14, 2024 I have the following fruit trees blooming.

Orion peach

Katy apricot 

 

Anna apple 

Aussie mulberry 

Also called AustroTurkey, Australian Turkish, etc. 

Himalayan Red Skinner mulberry 

Four Seasons mulberry 

Shangri La mulberry

Hybrid Hibiscus of Rusanov

 This post describes the hybrid selections of herbaceous hibiscus created by Fedor Rusanov. 

Fedor Rusanov (1895 -1979) was the founder of Tashkent Botanical Garden in Uzbekistan.  He had a long and successful career as a botanist and plant breeder. Sometime around 1940s-50s he created the hybrids of hibiscus which are called by his name now. He was working with three American species, Нibiscus coccineus, Н. moscheutos, and Н. militaris. After multistep crosses he ended up with selections which are very frost hardy, vigorous and have large flowers.  These hybrids can grow to 2.5 - 3 meters (7-10 feet) in one season producing an inch or more thick stems.  However, they will go fully dormant for winter, and all above ground parts will die back. The following spring they will regrow from the roots.  The roots are very thick rhizomes similar in the structure to the vigorous peony roots. These plants need space, sun, and supplementary water in California.  They are also extremely heat tolerant and will bloom over the summer, fall, and until the frosts. 

In my childhood I used to walk through the grounds of Samarkand College of Agriculture which had them planted in masses. I perceived them as just something given, and had no idea that someone worked for years to create these hybrids. I also had one in the backyard of my grandmother. That plant produced very large red flowers.

I started growing these from seeds a few years back and had a number of seedlings with pink, white, and red flowers.  I preserved a selection with very large pink flowers which should segregate into multiple colors.  I just started a number of seeds and hope to select other colors.  I also grow multiple clones of this pink selection, as it is very easy to create new plants from the early summer shoots. They root in a couple of weeks. Below are the pictures of my pink selection.

These are very open plants and combine very well with other plantings, see image below.

I once also had a red selection, and I may have found some seeds from it and will try to germinate them. The red flowering plant is in the below images.

The utility of these hybrids for California is in their heat tolerance and ability to continue blooming when the temperature are above 100F.  However, they might have even more use in the US states with extremely cold winters. They have been shown to perform very well in various regions of Russia and Ukraine.

My plan is to propagate these accessions from seeds and cuttings and distribute through reallygoodplants.com