Hardiest mulberries you grow?

General Fruit Growing
#21

it is! amazing growth. some branches grew over 8ft…

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#22

I think Northrop is hardy into zone 3. It produces small, sweet seedless fruit that will even dry on the tree if not picked. Pretty easy to root from summer cuttings. Mine is now around 12’ tall.

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#23

Well, if yours didn’t make it I bet another one here won’t either. I think I may try a Kokuso mulberry from Burnt Ridge instead. Anybody in a cold zone try that variety?

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#24

when you prune, could you send me some cuttings?

#25

I have had to plant three IE mulberries to get one to survive the winter at the northern edge of zone 4. We will see how this one does on its second winter coming up. If it makes it, I may try grafting to a wild mulberry and to the rootstock from a previously croaked IE. My attempts at grafting anything haven’t been that great, though.

#26

Remind me in late winter

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#27

Nwoods, swing by madison. My grafting isnt pretty but i do well enough w percent takes, i would suggest you graft an ie, let it go 2-3 yrs in pots protected over winter, and plant with the graft at least 6” below soil line…only my thoughts

#28

Markalbob, I meant I would try grafting to a wild mulberry already growing in the ground. Pots are too much of a fuss. I grew up in your neck of the woods and still have cousins down in southern Wisconsin. I graduated from UW-Madison.

#29

I’ve got Kokuso (from Burnt Ridge) growing and fruiting wonderfully in SE Michigan. I am in a pretty special area of Mi, though… 6A by the maps, most winters I barely see -2

Scott

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#30

I grew up in stevens point…even if pots are a PITA I might try digging up some small mulberries, bench-grafting, then planting in depressions I could fill over the top of the graft line before the following winter…….still a lot of work, but if you’re looking to hedge your bets…

#31

Except that my wild mulberry is getting too big for a pot.

#32

Two years ago I planted two Trader Mulberries. They are still small but they both have made it through two fairly hard winters with only minor tip dieback. So far so good. I may try a Northrop. Sue

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#33

Sue i just put in northrop. id be interested in swaping some cuttings of it for some of your Trader to graft onto my russian and northrop. where did you get Trader anyway? heard of them but never could find a source.

#34

Hi Steve, My Traders are rather small yet, and I doubt will be very fast growers here, so it’ll be awhile before big enough to take any cuttings. I think in the story behind the Trader mulberry they said the tried growing from seed and also grafting to propagate the tree but had no luck doing either. So that’s how Jim Walla got involved with tissue culture rooting them and selling them. That’s where I got mine, and they came so well packaged I think they could have gone around the world several times and still arrived in good shape!. I assume he’s still selling them but it’s a sideline and availability depends. He has a FaceBook page but it’s hard to navigate. Easiest would probably be to email him and ask. Here’s a link to his page: Northern Tree Specialties w/ Jim Walla - Tree Doctor - Home | Facebook I don’t know that anyone else is selling them. Sue

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#35

hi Sue. my northrop is young also . will be slow to grow here as well. maybe in a few years we could trade scions.:wink: i have a russian thats very slow to develop here as well.

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#36

Don’t know what variety of mulberry has gone invasive here in MPLS area but they volunteer seed readily. They have a med almost purple/black soft seeded fruit that is not overly flavored but OK of small trees. Tranplanted some seedings to my cabin near middle of MN and they survived last winters two -38 F nights but they are not large enough to fruit yet. Not a popular fruit here because they STAIN anything the fruit falls on.

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#37

He had a disease spread through this years plants for sale so he is having to start over again. I was on his list for this spring but he notified me of the problem and said he’d keep me on the list for when he grew more.

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#38

The last I knew, Bailey Nursery had begun growing Trader mulberries on a trial basis. They haven’t started selling them, so Jim remains the sole source to obtain a tree from. My Traders had a few very small fruits last year. I was hoping this would be the year for a big crop, but last winter took care of that dream it appears.

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#39

So your tree winter killed?

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#40

No, my 2 Traders are alive but they suffered significant tip dieback. As in 12-20" per branch