I’m growing Tehama, a white variety, here in Phoenix. The tree was purchased from Burnt Ridge last year as a 14 inch whip and in the last year has grown 6+ feet and now has a trunk caliber of an inch. I was impressed by the number of catkins on the tree earlier in the month, but yesterday I noticed that many were dried up and there were multiple aborted or dropped catkins at the base of the tree. The tree has leafed out, but there doesn’t appear to be signs of developing fruit. Is this typical for a young morus alba or did I strike out and received a male tree?
That could be,that the tree is still too young to support fruit.That happened with a Pakistan I have.For the first 2-3 years,they never went past green and fell off.Then last year,some finally ripened.
There is another thread about this,on the forum. Brady
was the same course for our paks, as well as for all our nigras.
incidentally, it is unlikely that burntridge would send you a male tree, but if grafted, they might not notice that the specimens they are trimming(to put in the box) had the scions trimmed instead of the adventitious growth from below the grafts, and this could result in an inadvertent male being sent to buyers.
if you have close-up pictures of the catkins, i might be able to tell if they are males or females.
I bought a Tehama (actually a couple since the first one had trunk damage) from Rolling River nursery. Are you sure about Burnt Ridge? I’ve never seen them sell Tehama?
I tried to root cuttings from the damaged tree. They set fruit while getting rooted!
Even the 2nd tree set fruit which I removed.
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I’m a year behind you! 
I removed all the fruit anyways.
I think they are male catkins, at least most parts shown in the last pic. Leave all the flowers bud alone through the spring, there may be a slim chance that only some of them are male for some transient factors.
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Disheartening. Anyone else see otherwise?
sorry Andrew, i agree with @JayKidd that it appears male. Those look like anthers… I hope rollingriver(burntridge?) replaces it on your next order, or at least refunds the amount.
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Thanks Raf. I became suspicious when all of us started having really bad allergy issues for the last two weeks.
you could probably just prune hard at the thick branches to get rid of all catkins, or at the main trunk, and just bark graft with female mulbs. I feel your pain, that a year has been wasted…
Ok now I’m worried. I took out all fruit or at least what thought was. 
Any other way to identify a male?
unfortunately there’s none. There’s a chance it may produce a few inflorescence later this year, but if none, there aren’t any other visuals we could refer to and have to wait until next spring…
I also bought a Tehama from Rolling River Nursery this year. I live in Phoenix, AZ too. My Tehama also had these male flowers or catkins. But this weebsite said that Tehama produces more males when the tree is young. So I’m going to wait a few more years before yanking it.
https://www.growingmulberry.org/selection
Tehama 7-9 White 2 1/2" Large Mature tree has very large, plump fruit (2 1/2”). Produces more male catkins than female in early years.
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My Tehama is in a 3 gallon pot and about 6 ft tall and produced mostly male catkins the first year. I have a large Alba near my house that produces about half male and half female, it is not uncommon.
So Rolling River is out of Tehama. Anyone know anywhere else that reliably sells them? I’ve searched the internet, and can’t find any.
If you’re up for grafting, there is an Ebay seller selling Tehama scions as one of six cultivars offered…just search for “Tehama mulberry scions” on Ebay.
Thanks, but no. I’ve never been able to get anything to graft on this IE, and I need another huge tree to fill a space.
Burnt Ridge sells mulberry rootstock—$3.50. Get you one or two and order the scions and make your own. I got some of their rootstock last year and it is nice size that grew really fast.
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