Just for fun I am going to try rooting a couple in fig pops to see if they do anything.
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They propagate by air layering just as easily as other mulberries.
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From p.84, Plant Propagation ed. Alan Toogood:
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She’s great! And yes she has perfect manners, and reminds you of proper etiquette…
She sent me one of her cook books too, I’m very grateful, the recipes are all awesome.
been tempted to try that but the oppressive heat during our growing season makes me feel like a failure before i even tried haha
2 years ago I spoke to an english nursery owner about rooting morus nigra. He said he buys his stock from a specialized nursery that is propagating morus nigra by cuttings. He couldn’t tell me what they do to get decent results but promised to write via mail. That never happened but at least I then knew that cuttings do work.
So I played around a bit last year and tried different methods using a crude selfmade misting chamber. I had very little success with hardwood cuttings. 1 out of 20 developed a single root after months but never started to grow. This cutting died in the process too.
Softwood cuttings worked significantly better. Since I did not have a lot of material I could only try 5 softwood cuttings. 3 out of 5 did root in my misting chamber. They didn’t suvive the repotting either. I was away for some time and could not tend to them as planned.
But for me softwood cuttings seem to be much more successful than hardwood cuttings. I did not use any hormones. Maybe that could help with hardwood cuttings.
Nice to hear air layering works with morus nigra. I will try that this season.
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Good to know. I will try with softwood.
Well it may not, but propagation is happening somehow? It works on blueberries, Once my plant becomes bigger I will experiment with various propagation techniques. I have learned a lot in the last year. It’s possible to air layer peach trees it should be possible to do it with mulberries. So far with alba I have rooted in soil about 5 plants. All died from an early freeze except two which are growing in my backyard at my cottage.
My air layered nigra taken from mother at 3 months (I cut all my air layered mulberries at 3 months): Started 6/23/18, removed 9/23/18.
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So did you girdle branch? Or any prep of branch?
Yes…Just the standard air layering technique…Remove at least an inch of bark and scrape the surface to rough it up. Be sure to squeeze all excess water out of your rooting medium (good potting soil, coconut coir, sphagnum moss, vermiculite, etc.)…I think most air layer failures are from having too wet a medium, but also check every month to make sure it isn’t too dry. Mulberry air layers sometimes drop their leaves after a couple months before roots have formed and only showing callousing…Cut it off and stick in good potting soil anyway, because it often will still root.
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As is with many things, a couple years of trial and error can save you a couple hours of reading a standard reference book.
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On Ourfigs and 6 years ago on Tomatoville many have been experimenting with various grades of DE (diatomaceous earth) Not for air layers, more for rooting just about anything! But may work for AL too! I agree I learned that myself about being too wet!
I asked about girdling because I don’t like to do it. You really don’t have to on figs, honeyberries, and wisteria. I did all those and they worked doing nothing but putting the air layer on. I like this as if it fails, you don’t lose the branch. Anyway I will try wire girdling first
You tighten a wire instead of removing the bark. Works with peach, saw a guy do it, but I have not. This allows some sap flow, but still stimulates the release of rooting hormones.
LOL! Yes, the main thing I learned in college. I consider the most important is everything I need to know is in a book somewhere. Always nice to have hands on direct guidance, but books will work too.
Wait 'til they discover that some hardwoods cannot be rooted, e.g. Ebenaceae.
Anything that can hold a good amount of moisture but doesn’t get compacted works well (but I haven’t tried diatomaceous earth).
I tried a few air layers using wire girdling and they didn’t work. I have had some success just doing partial girdling (maybe half-way), but most just seem to callous but never root (I cut them off and attempt to root them after three or four months). But I will do a partial girdle when I don’t want to risk having the branch die…but it may only form roots, at most, 50% of the time (but perhaps they all will root if you are patient enough…maybe 5 or 6 months…I don’t know, I have never waited that long).
I have to study the wire method as their are some tricks to it. The guy got peaches to root, very impressive. The gentleman has since passed away so all we have is what he posted here and on garden web. I have to find those posts again.
@livinginawe, this is “groundbreaking” “earthshaking” experimentation!!! (puns intended…). Although there is mention of air-layering in many a textbook, this only the second photographed example that I have seen anywhere. Awesome!!!
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Absolutely!..When I say something didn’t work, I only mean it didn’t work for me…As you know, there are so many variables with plants that someone may not be aware of that one critical “trick”.
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