Thanks for doing the experiment! Guess I need to look around for some wild osage oranges.
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We tried numerous Che grafts. My results were like Tony slowly grafts showed incompatibility. I grafted mulberries as controls. This was the one surviving mulberry I grafted as a control that survived the Kansas weather and grafting. It grew about 6â this year. This mulberry was a male I changed over to a fruit bearing female.
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good try. i might give this a swing as there are a bunch of osage orange trees out this way.
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I tried che on mulberry years ago, with no success, but was glad to see someone give it a more extensive try.
You say âdelayed incompatibilityâ, but Iâm wondering - mainly based on the size of your scions, if they just grew until they exhausted energy reserves stored in the scion, then died ?
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Lucky,
Some of the scion wood I used was half an inch in length with a single bud. Those scions grew to 3/4 of an inch. Once the hot weather started the leaves of the scions turned brown and died. My assumption was delayed incompatibility since the held on so long. Admittedly che are something I know little about.
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Thanks for that Tony.
With that info, it probably is delayed rejection.
Iâve -accidentally - grafted pear onto apple rootstock in the past and had it grow vigorously for one year then decline and die out over the next couple - or break out at the graft union.
Have an acquaintance whoâd been grafting named honeylocust cultivars(Gleditisa) onto black locust understock (Robinia)⌠first year growth looked good - but I have serious doubts about long-term success⌠but Iâve not heard from him in a year or two.
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The mulberry I grafted as a control grew about 8â this year. I completely neglected it since it was not my intended task I planned to accomplish. The tree was a non fruiting male mulberry I changed over to a female mulberry. Sometime soon I need to clean up all the undergrowth from the mulberry and brush surrounding the tree. A vining honey suckle seized the opportunity to try and choke the tree when I trimmed back the canopy to graft the tree. Next year I need to give it some attention so it can develop into a nice tree.
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Wanted to revise this old thread because I think it has some valuable information people can use this year. Iâm seeing a lot of dormant Mulberry grafting and it is never successful. One year I grafted over 50 mulberries dormant and had 100% failures.
Clark, I see some green buds poking through parafilm on Gerardi mulberry which I grafted this March. We had this cold dreary weather the last two weeks, so they did not grow much. But I have high hopes that they are doing fine.
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Antmary,
Thats a great point most grafts added in dormant weather are not wrapped in parafilm but parafilm does greatly increase your chances because the scion wood wonât dry out before it bonds. Iâm hopeful you get some takes that way. I waisted a lot of time, money, and resources to find out not to graft Mulberry dormant again.
Yes, I think that wrapping in parafilm is very important for the early grafting, because the scions do not grow actively for several weeks. But they establish graft union at that time. So when the temperatures become warmer they grow at the same rate as the main plant. All my grafts are at the waiting stage, they have green swollen buds (even peaches) and they are waiting the decent warm weather in 60s to start growing.
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Next year I have about 50 rootstock mulberries to graft over because I wonât have as many pears to do. Anyone have suggestions on the mulberries they like the best? I might tbud a few male mulberries to females this yeĂ r.
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Clark,
YMMV
Illinois Everbearing is the âgold standardâ here, but popcorn disease takes most of the early crop, anymoreâŚ
Stearns is good. Silk Hope is good.
Iâve seen good reports on David Smith Everbearing, but donât have it at the moment.
Wellington is a piece of crap here, but other folks like it.
I have a couple of superior chance findings from the local population⌠M.rubraXalba hybrids, that are really good⌠âLawson Dawsonâ, and one that Iâm calling âCorralâ, as itâs one I transplanted from somewhere out in the orchard to a spot next to the cattle-working pen to provide shade.
I had a fabulous M.rubra selection from back home in AL, but it was incompatible with M.alba understock, and the last time I was home⌠I sadly found the ortet was dead.
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Lucky,
Thank you for the great advice youâve always given me! Just looked over my rootstocks and Iâve got a bunch more than I thought! Iâm at least at 100.
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Just wanted to give an update on the control I used for the experiment. Had the other trees been compatible the results would be similar. The mulberry I used as the control is as tall as a electric pole now. I know this because itâs growing closer to one than I like! It produced some fruits this year in 2017 less than a year later. The cleft graft is nearly completely healed. Many experts say to avoid cleft grafting mulberries. You will notice I left the grafting tape on to ensure the graft healed in the right direction. Using plastic garden tape as Grafting tape is a lesson I learned the hard way with large clefts such as this one. The garden tape offers support and will not girdle larger cleft grafts. It will girdle smaller grafts and must be pulled within a few months.
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This is once I pulled the grafting tape from the mulberry today. I will now tie the top of the tree to the next mulberry over and bend the tree to the right to avoid the power line. Even then this tree will need to be watched to make sure it does not send branches in that direction as it spreads.
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The mulberry I used as the control is as tall as a electric pole now.
Mulberries really are amazing, arenât they? It blows my mind how large a graft will grow in a single season. I almost think that the grafting damage actually stimulates them to grow faster.
Any idea why they advise against cleft grafting mulberries? Iâve been using them with great success.
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The expert reports I read said the grafting success was reduced due to cleft grafting so the grafting method was discouraged. You may find articles such as this interesting https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/did2222.0002.154/--mulberry-tree?rgn=main;view= . Yes mulberries are amazing! Wish all trees were as forgiving. A mulberry definately seems to be stimulated when pruned like no other tree Iâve seen.
@KlecknerOasis I just saw your mention from over a year ago about thornless osage orange. Iâm curious what you know about them? Do you have any? I know Benton Arboretum a little west of Des Moines started a collection of thornless osage oranges, I think mainly, if I remember correctly from a collection John Pair, now deceased, had established somewhere in Kansas, but I think some subsequent cold winters were hard on that collection. Iâm very interested in thornless osage orange myself, but I havenât gotten any material to propagate yet.
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Cousinfloyd,
This is the information your after â Osage Orange is a fast-growing tree that reaches heights of 30-50 feet. Many urban foresters reel when you suggest this tree because of the thorns and the fruit. Take heart. This tree is dioecoius and only half of the trees have fruit. There are also at least three thornless male trees now available in the nursery trade: âWhite Shieldâ, âParkâ, and âWichitaâ. âWhite Shieldâ is thornless even when very young and is preferred.
The wood of Maclura is very dense, storm and decay resistant, yet the tree is very fast growing. The foliage is a deep glossy green and shows no signs of deterioration even in severe droughts. Fall color is displayed a little later than average but is a lovely clear or golden yellow. The habit is often wider than tall with the bark having an interesting orange cast.
Osage Orange is virtually pest-free and highly deer resistant. As a member of the mulberry family it offers good potential for increasing diversity in our cities. This plant is incredibly tough and is a remarkable survivor. It tolerates some notably poor soils. Remember how long we have tried to get rid of it? It is time to turn that tenacity in our favor and plant a thornless male in an urban site.
Note: âWhite Shieldâ Osage orange can be purchased from from Sunshine Nursery (contact: Steve or Sherry Bierbich) Clinton, Oklahoma. Phone: 580-323-6259 E-Mail: gardening@sunshinenursery.com
For more information see Osage Orange the Urban Tree List at Cornell University.â - http://shade-trees.tripod.com/families/selections/osage_orange.html
âOsage orange (Maclura pomifera) has been declawed and neutered. Also called Bois DâArc (pronounced âbow-darkâ) by native Americans, this tough native prairie tree species (USDA Zones 5-8) produces large 4-6 inch diameter yellowish green fruits (âhedge applesâ) which may weigh 2 to 3 pounds. They fall from the tree in October to create a maintenance nightmare. Its fierce ½- inch long thorns, hidden among the thick branches, can snag clothing or puncture a car tire.
âWhite Shieldâ thornless cultivar (M. pomifera var. inermis) has arrived. It is a handsome medium-sized landscape tree, averaging 35 feet in height and spread. It can be utilized as a specimen shade tree or as a deciduous windbreak.
Osage orange is fast growing at 2 ½ to 3 feet per year. Its wood is hard and does not easily split. Mature tree bark is deeply fissured, with an orange-brown inner wood peeking through. Pruning helps in the early years to develop a well-branched tree.
Summer foliage is dark green and glossy. Yellow-green fall foliage color may vary widely from tree to tree, sometimes brightly golden. In late spring fruitless White Shield bears tiny green flower clusters that are mostly inconspicuous.
Few trees prosper better in poor infertile, acid or alkaline pH soil, dry or wet ground. Summer foliage is impervious to urban air pollutants. Overall, disease and pest problems are rarely an issue.
White Shield is ideally suited for large residential or commercial properties, municipal parks, and golf courses.â - âWhite Shieldâ â New Thornless Osage Orange | What Grows There :: Hugh Conlon, Horticulturalist, Professor, Lecturer, and Gardener
http://www.boldspring.com/trees/mpw-mst
http://www.shadetrees.com/TreeDetail/White%20Shield%20Osage%20Orange
http://www.katnurseries.com/genus.php?category=Shade%20Trees&genus=Maclura%20(Osage%20Orange)
In 1997 no true thornless types existed so the thornless are not fully understood yet
https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/1997/10-10-1997/hedgeapple.html
There are now 3 thornless cultivars which are Witchitaâ, âWhite Shieldâ, and âParkâ.
http://hort.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/tree_fact_sheets/macpoma.pdf
The wood is exceedingly valuable but still used here as firewood because it grows in great abundance. It is the hottest burning wood which is useful if trying to melt metals and bad if your not because it literally burns houses down by turning the wood stove metal cherry red and catching anything in close proximity on fire if burned improperly. Throw one log on before going to bed but do not stoke the stove full of wood and itâs bestbif the stove is outside and heat vented inside.