Is it a male or female Mulberry?

I took a cutting from my mother in laws mulberry tree about three or four years ago. It rooted and I put it out to grow. It’s about 15-18 feet high now and has flowered for the last two years. Last year we had a late frost but this year we didn’t but there was no fruit. Is it too young? Could it possibly be male even though I took it from a fruiting tree? What’s going on?

1 Like

Those are male flowers.

4 Likes

i read somewhere that mulberries are capable of changing sex. maybe thats what happened to yours.

3 Likes

First time I have seen this! If they do not fruit you may want to graft each scaffold of the tree with varieties that will fruit.
I was just visiting with Stan this several days ago to see his grafting results. He had very close to 100% success on mulberry spring grafting. I am sure he would give you his procedures so that you can have a fairly good chance of top working yours. He also has a number of varieties that he may be willing to provide scions to you. You can contact Stan at @ SteadyStan.
Dennis
Kent, wa

2 Likes

Thank you!

I’ve heard that…… lol. In this day and time it should be easy!!! I airlayered two trees that are doing well in their 4 year and so far they are both still all male. It’ll be a good test. :joy::joy:

3 Likes

It may just need to reach a certain level of maturity (size) to revert to female. I don’t remember if this is a thing with plants, but in a lot of fish species they start out as male and become female as they grow larger. At small sizes, it’s easy to produce plenty of sperm/pollen to spread your genetics around. But as size increases, it becomes more advantageous to invest your energy into eggs (or seeds/fruit in the case of mulberries) because you have the mass and resources to support production of a large amount.

1 Like

I have a volunteer mulberry I moved last year. It flowered for the first time and is sadly male.
I’d also heard they can change but has anyone heard methods to force it?
With it being a wild freebie, I wasn’t gentle on the transplant and also pruned it back harshly but it’s still male. :disappointed_relieved:
I can live with using it a grafting training project but it would be great if there was a way to trigger a whole scale shift.
(I feel slightly bad, asking for how to torture my mulberry, but well, non producers don’t get space!)

2 Likes