I offered to help a friend who has lots of fruit trees but doesn’t graft successfully. He acquired some mulberry material and is available tomorrow.
It will probably be around 80 degrees out while we graft, high of 90 with upcoming days getting near 100.
Here are pictures of the wood collected and in the fridge (I would have collected straight current season growth with wide internodes). I should have advised on collecting wood.
There are two varieties. I’m not sure exactly what the host tree(s) will look like but I think he probably has more than one well established tree that bear.
I have lots of experience grafted with dormant scion wood on existing trees of temperate fruit. Much less with budding. More with T-budding than chip budding.
I’m told varieties are Himalayan and Heratti. Anybody know Heratti? First I’ve heard of it.
I’ve done a few T-bud placements, over the years, with mixed results.
Did a few last week with budwood I cut from a few roadside M.rubras I was able to access on a trip home to AL, visiting family.
Of the ‘budwood’ pictured, pretty much all I see that I’d want to use is the one you’ve circled. But… if some of those pieces of last year’s wood have some decent buds, you might be able to bark graft them onto limbs with some success.
Yeah, I hope the one I circled continues out of the frame of the picture with some more buds. There are 2 varieties, I don’t know if the picture is of one or both. He says he knows which are which .
I saw a picture of the the donor trees. They had plenty of suitable growth
Are mulberry like apples in that adventitious shoots will originate just about anythwere? I’m wondering if its worth bark grafting or whip and tongue some of the wood without obvious nice buds but healthy and hydrated with at least one internode?
Do I wrap the grafts with loose tented aluminum foil and instruct him to remove it after a week?
Keep us informed on your progress. I did some mulberry bark grafts and clef grafts this spring that failed. Need to try again.
With temps in 90s I’d keep aluminum foil on for two or three weeks unless there was growth.
I have found that if the bud is damaged after grafted, that the graft will eventually fail. Not sure if this is because it was a bad graft in the first place or not, but typically the entire scion starts to die off after the bud fails. I have a chip bud that has taken but the bud is gone, probably from slugs, but the wood still looks alive so maybe one day it will grow lol.
I’d say slap on anything that seems to match cambium to cambium. And hope something takes. T buds with new wood if bark is slipping on the stock. Chip buds and grafts with older wood.
Agree with Fruitnut with only one reservation, since we are fairly early in the growing season, the buds nearest the base of this years growth may be your best choices for any type of budding, chip or T. Avoid using those immature buds. Also if you notice that the rootstock is bleeding significantly on a whip and tongue or cleft graft, you might give is a few minutes after the first cut to bleed, then slice the limb below that cut to see is that helps relieve the sap pressure. Then make a fresh cut on the rootstock to place your scion. You may have to notch below the graft to achieve enough sap pressure for the graft union to survive.
I would keep foils on at least 3 weeks to allow only indirect light but block direct sunlight on the graft union and the scion; as scions begin to grow allow only early morning light for a week or so before full exposure.
Best wishes and Happy 4th Jafar,
BTW your Sprite scions are growing well for me
Dennis
Kent, wa
I did a T graft and couple of cleft grafts on a wild mulberry about 2 weeks ago on 6/19. Temperature at day and the days following were in the 90-95F range. The T graft failed and one of the cleft already leafedd out. The tree has morning shade and afternoon sun.
I don’t think he’s going to follow detailed instructions. We’ll see.
Unless there’s a bunch of wood that isn’t pictured, there may not be any prime budding material.
If there is some stuff left over, I may try a couple on my tree.
I have a Pakistan with Silk Hope I grafted to it, and Illinois everbearing to its rootstock sucker.
Last year I had 100% success (2/2) grafting to root suckers from that tree, dormant scion.
The Illinois everbearing was collected dormant 16 or 18 months before grafting. It may premature to call this taken, but the scion definitely still in good shape:
I just realized that the stick I circled before looks to have another stick on top of it, and it may have more suitable buds lower down obscured from view!
It’s difficult to tell which is which where they are on top of each other and branched and curved.
For grafting mulberries, I have near 100% success in early spring but almost 100% failure in the summer (S. AZ with temps 100+). I’ve wrapped them in parafilm, covered in foil and added lightweight pipe insulation but they just dry out too quickly. Depending on the variety, I’d rather just try to root them in summer, and use that material for grafts the following spring. For rooting, I just put them in a shady place and use a home-made cloche (1 gal glass jug with the bottom cut off) for humidity. Wishing you success!
