Are these Pakistan mulberry leaves or rootstock leaves?

My 2 grafted Pakistan mulberries from Burnt Ridge died this winter ( low of 7F) to within 3 " of ground. They both emerged from about 2" of base above ground. . Do these both look like rootstock leaves? The leaves are not similar to each other but I’m not sure what Pakistan mulberry leaves look like. The leaves in first picture look similar to Pakistan but more serrated. The leaves in second picture are totally different - must be rootstock, right?
#1
IMG_0979
#2
IMG_0978

I think 2 is the rootstock. My Pakistan is more like the top, leaves are quite large. I also have rootstock sucker that looks more like the Pakistan than yours does, but are much smaller than my Pakistan.

I’ve left it because it doesn’t seem especially vigorous, it gives deer something to be distracted by, and perhaps at some point I can propagate it as rootstock. Plus I’m curious to see if it fruits and what the fruit are like.

edit: I didn’t read carefully, am going by memory, and presumed that both leaves were coming from one tree, so one must be the Pakistan. If I remember I’ll look more closely and take a picture.

I could probably send you scion wood of Pakistan this winter if you need.

This is what the leaves on my Pakistan,from the same nursery,look like today.





Thanks for your eval. Yes, the second one looks very strange. Thanks for the offer… my Kokuso and Oscar plants fared much better than Pakistan, so I might give up on Pakistan. I think I’ll try to T bud Kokuso and Oscar onto the Pakistan rootstock. Have yet to be successful with T-budding…maybe this time will work.

Thanks for the photos! Both of mine look off. Will try grafting over to Kokuso or Oscar.

If you don’t have Illinois Everbearing I can give you scions from mine. It’s a very prolific variety in this climate. We get about 20-30 lbs annually from IE. I am looking for a rootstock that easily roots if you know of one.
Dennis
Kent, wa

1 Like

Keep in mind that the leaf pattern changes from where they’re young to a mature trees. At least that’s what I noticed on mine but again keep in mind the variety and location.
I would graft the #2 but not the #1

1 Like

Thanks I do have Illinois Everbearing. And after a 5 year wait, it’s finally got 15 fruit.
Hope I get to 20-30 lb in my lifetime! How old is your tree?
I remember reading that Illinois Everbearing is particularly difficult to root. If you’ve read that Kokuso or Oscar are easier, you are welcome to cuttings.

Thanks. Good points. Probably will wait on #1 to see what happens next year.

I think you’ve just got two different seedling rootstocks… almost guarantee that #2 is just an M.alba seedling; #1 might be Paki, but I’m betting not… looks like it could be an albaXrubra hybrid seedling…

1 Like

Interesting. Does alba/rubra hybrid produce anything passably good?

Pakistan in the bottom half of picture, and rootstock in the top.

@DennisD , if you are so inclined, I wouldn’t mind some Illinois Everbearing scion this winter to graft to the root sucker.

Those rootstock leaves look similar in size and shape to my #1. Has your rootstock fruited?
I see that the Pakistan leaves are noticeably larger. Thanks for pics.

No, this is the first year the Pakistan fruited. Maybe the 3rd or 4th leaf, after buying as a good sized tree. I think the rootstock sucker is 1st year growth.

The deer left it alone most of the summer, then stripped it. I think the stress, followed by the weather killed the top of the tree. Fortunately it sent up new shoots from above the graft union.

I put a 6’ tree tube to protect it from the deer and allow max canopy growth. That’s since removed, its tall, floppy, multiple trunked, and has some bad crotch angles. But, I got to taste a couple dozen fruit for the first time, and they were very good.

You can probably see the dead original trunk, with peeling bark, in the middle. That’s pretty much the caliper of the tree when I transplanted it. I left it as essentially a stake for the tree tube.

I left the rootstock sucker in case I want to try to propagate another tree, graft to it directly, or at least distract the deer and rabbits from the prize of the real tree.

Grrr…deer. After forgetting to latch the gate, deer reduced by half my mulberry transplants last year. They passed up the raspberries in favor of the mulberries - leaves must be very tasty!

Some do. Most of the ‘everbearing’ types are albaXrubra hybrids, but not all measure up to the quality of Illinois Everbearing, Silk Hope, Wellington, etc.
I have dozens of hybrids planted out here - most were purchased from the KY state Div. of Forestry nursery as ‘Red Mulberry’… but there’s not a pure M.rubra in the bunch… some are heavy bearers, some have fairly large fruit, fruit color ranges from white to black, but only one - presumed to be an IE seedling that popped up in my blueberries - has been worthy of propagation. The others… I’ll grab a handful of berries as I pass by, but I don’t go out of my way to gather from them.

1 Like

Hi Jafar
It appears that Pakistan produces suckers from its rootstock.
Is Pakistan able to root separate trees from its rootstock? If so I may be interested in a rooted sucker if you can spare one.
Just let me know this winter I can easily provide the sizes you desire.
Dennis

I don’t know what roots my Pakistan is on, whether it is seedling, or clonally propagated. I assume they are not all the same.

I may have called mine a root sucker, but in fact I believe it originates above ground, just below the graft union. So I’d probably need to layer it, or air layer it to propagate. I don’t currently have any plans to do that, more likely I may graft something to it where it is.

Presumably some mulberries are easy to propagate from cuttings, but I don’t think Pakistan is among them.

Hi Chris

My tree is about 25 years old. If you plan to keep it at a reasonable height top it before it grows too high. That was my main mistake. I did not realize until too late that this variety can go well over 40-50’ high.

Had I trained it better to a more spreading pattern when it reached 10’ I would be much better off now, if you can fence out the deer you can train it to be easy to pick them as the tree spreads. But deer can graze pretty high so that’s a challenge to train it to grow at a height out of their reach but within yours.
Dennis

Dennis

1 Like