Black Mulberry shrub

Ah ok, I misunderstood then. I am making plans about visiting London again this year. Is the Botanical Center open to the public? Did you have a suggestion in mind?

1st you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the Morus researchers there, then make an appointment to meet one of them with matching interests.

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Yes, Vratsa is a little colder than Bucharest, and Vratsa only shows record minimum winter temperatures at -10 C for the last ten years…which is quite fine for Morus nigra which can handle -20 C when mature and fully seasoned…but a young nigra will be killed by a much warmer temperature (but it is not just the low temperatures that kill a tree, but a whole range of other factors…so it is always advisable to play it safe).

Thank you for the good suggestion. I don’t really have a specific purpose right now to get in touch with researchers. I am just an interested hobbyist after all. I will keep that in mind though, didn’t even know there are reseach projects going on with Morus.

Yes, i agree. I will experiment with clones only and only after I have a backup. I have a 2nd seedling, but have my doubts it’s alive. The heater is still on and will not be turned off till tomorrow morning when temps go warmer.
So my mother tree is destined to live in a container, but I will put out clones to see what happens. I will graft the clones out. and keep in containers till about 3 years old. Burntridge sells excellent rootstock. I’ll also give you guys clones if you want them. Well cuttings to graft. First though let’s see if I can keep it alive.

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??
I thought you were interested in propagation of M. nigra.

That would be excellent!

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Hell ya, it’s not much fun if you can’t share it! We all need to keep this one around.
I definitely need to pass it forward. So many have helped me out. I find that for everything I mail out, two come in! Some great people around here!

Lately we’ve been having sustained dry cool (45F) winds which have been blowing the M. nigra plant and pot around. This afternoon I moved it to our indoor propagation area. To keep it manageable in that space I’ll need to reduce the height by about half. When that happens I’ll have small cuttings available for pick-up here.

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I do. I don’t know why but for some reason I thought you are up to sth else. Its premature but I hope I solved the propagation issue for my small scale operation. I plan to repeat the trial with softwood cuttings this season and take better care when repotting and hardening to outdoor conditions. Thats where I failed the last time, at least I hope so. But thank you, I will keep your suggestion in mind. I guess for getting answers about morus nigra I do have to look outside of Germany. Morus Nigra is not commonly known here.

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There are researches in Turkey, where Morus nigra is common:

https://www.google.bg/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwjw-YLb84PgAhVH3qQKHfJKCLYQFjABegQICBAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insad.pl%2Ffiles%2Fjournal_pdf%2Fjournal_2003%2FFull_2003_6.pdf&usg=AOvVaw213hDw_ooMVkQRpy0bMq8x

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I read that study and tried to bunch plant some fig cuttings just for the fun of it. It didn’t work out so well. Maybe I did it wrong. How do you buch plant the right way? I simply grabbed a fistful of cuttings and put them in. That way not every cutting was in contact with the soil. I had my doubts about this method and they got confirmed by a poor rate of rooted cuttings. I probably did it wrong.

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I also wondered what is “bunch planting”. I never tried, because i don’t have more than one cutting at a time.
In one of variants they use bottom heat 22°C (this maybe helps also).
For me I decide not to try rooting, (chances are very slim). I will try grafting/buding on my nigra seedlings, when they grow enough.:crossed_fingers: My several attempt on alba are unsuccessful.

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Interesting that taking cuttings in January made a big difference. Maybe there was some other factor involved. Something like that has to be repeated several years to be sure. Taking the cuttings in January certainly is worth trying if climate is similar to Turkey.

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Yeah, I think thats a surprisingly big difference in rooting success between cuttings taken in January versus February/March. I never had the luxury to take cuttings on a schedule, I always had to take them when I was near a tree, so to speak.

Try wrapping all your cuttings in parafilm, better yet grafting buddy tape (if you can afford it) to stop them from drying out and keeping humidity against the bark constant and just sticking them in the ground should work.
My version of bunch planting. All with leaves survived.These are figs.

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I normally do the wrapping. I just wanted to try the bunch planting out of curiosity. I didn’t really need more plants. I did a row of cuttings and some bunch plantings as I understood from the paper. The row planting was more successful by far. Thats why I assume I did the bunch planting wrong.

I did that to see if gooseberries root as well as currants. They do!

Oh OK, interesting. I didn’t read the paper

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From “Plant Propagation” ed. Alan Toogood (again!):

15482657751001

There’s more information on the definition of “sand box” and “cold frame” in the book.

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Thanks a lot, Richard. As suspected I made some mistakes.