After 3 years of denials I just realized my edible landscaping gerardi isn’t really Gerardi
I suspect it’s IE or something like that because it’s massive despite aggressive pruning.
Would love to pay anyone for legit Gerardi scion. Gonna topwork this monster in spring
Happy to pay via Venmo or Zelle
There might be someone here that has some scion available, but I know that Brambleberry has the real one and scion still in stock.
Many of us have the same experience them and Gerardi.
I got a stick from someone on this forum and grafted mine over last spring. It’s less than 2 feet tall with 2 branches, so I can’t offer wood yet.
In my emails to them they are quite convinced they have a true Gerardi when they clearly don’t simply by looking at the internode spacing. They told me they had it genetically checked I believe. I think honestly they are just relying on their supplier’s word for it.
It’s possible that their mother tree IS true to type, but grafted onto a rootstock which suckered and every year they are taking their cuttings for propagation from the off type suckers since suckers are generally ideal material for propagation (when they’re actually of the correct variety).
Edit:
I found this video of a garden tour from Edible Landscaping. At 27:20 they show their mature, in ground ‘Gerardi’ mulberry. It does appear true to type with tight internodes, and I don’t see any off type rootstock suckers. It must be that someone over there just mixed up labels for the young rooted cuttings. Perhaps in the future they will switch back to selling the true ‘Gerardi’ once they get more rooted.
@Drcampbellicu I have a few extra scions in the fridge that I can send you. Pls message me your address and when you want me to send it.
My gerardi scion has all been spoken for at this point.
Below a couole pics that show the difference in gerardi and more common non dwarf mulberries.
Gerardi fruit set above. Notice how tight the leaf nodes are.
This is silk hope just as buds were opening last spring. Notice the distance between leaf nodes. 4 or 5 inches or more on silk hope.
Ths is gerardi just as buds were opening. Notice those leaf buds 1 to 1.5 inches apart
That is what makes gerardi dwarf… super tight leaf nodes leads to very compact growth habit.
I keep mine at 8 ft tall with one late winter pruning.
TNHunter
Dwarfs will still grow well beyond what is perceived to be dwarf. You just have to constantly hack them back, if I never prune my dwarf everbearing it would likely be 20 ft in the 3 years it’s in the ground. I don’t think something growing tall necessarily makes it the wrong variety
Mine is still dormant enough to cut scions so shoot me a message and we’ll work out how much you need. My tree was the source for TNHunter and a bunch of other folks and I know it is true. My neighbor actually has a supposed dwarf from EL and the difference is quite obvious.
Here’s my tree:
Dwarf Gerardi mulberry - small tree with huge production
I think I’m in the same boat as you. I’ve been convinced by a few posts I stumbled across that my Edible Landscaping Gerardi isn’t one. I’ve been doing some serious summer pruning every year (planted in 2023) and it’s still taller than me after last fall’s growth. Large spacing between the nodes. I was planning to email them this spring.
@zendog … at this point I could not remember who I got my Gerardi cuttings from…
That was a few years back. Wanted to say Thank You again for those… Love my Gerardi.
It is in full sun and last year (in year 3) the fruit was extra delicious. As good as any blackberry I have ever had.
TNHunter
@ste7enda7id I’m in Arlington, VA and I see you’re somewhere in Northern VA, so if you want to come taste them this Spring feel free to reach out.
You may also have various mulberry seedlings popping up around your yard from birds, which you can graft over to get yourself a true Gerardi. I grafted and given away about a half dozen that way over the years.
I believe EL buys some of their grafted trees as well as grafting their own, so maybe even if their mother tree is correct they’re getting trees wholesale that aren’t. It seems that it has been going on for years, so it is hard to imagine it was a one time mistake.
I tried my best with EL to inform them and show photos. I’d hope as a business they would have addressed it by now.
My purchase from them was last spring.
True
But even at 10 ft tall I get very few fruit
It’s really more of a tree instead of a dense shrub with tons of nodes with fruit
It’s definitely not right and I’ve watched it for 3 years now
I love EL but something is wrong
Cool
I will take you up on this in the summer
I live in Oakton
Sounds good. I think they usually start ripening in late May, so they are pretty early.
Here is my Gerardi grafted onto Silk Hope around April 2024. Silk Hope was getting too big fast in this spot. Glad I did 3 bark grafts as two failed.
@nana7b … a word of caution.
As that flat stump top begins to rot… where your gerardi scion successfully grafted in… that may be weakened.
If your gerardi grows like mine… it may get quite bushy and 8 ft tall… but still have a somewhat compromised connection to the roots.
A summer thunderstorm with some gusty winds… could break all that growth off.
That exact same thing happened to mine.
I was lucky that only 3 of my 4 scions broke off completly. One remained attached and I manage to stake it, pull it back upright…
My tree now grows as a single trunk up to about 4 ft… (I have that supported well with a tpost)… and after 4 ft it bushes out nice and wide.
I keep it at around 8 ft max height.
It still likes a little bit completely healing over all that flat stump area…
I am not such a fan of bark grafts to large diameter sawed off trees now… it can be problematic getting all of that to heal well.
You can lose most or all of what you grafted on in a single wind storm.
Good luck to you on that.
Bark grafts to 1-2 inch diameter rootstocks … i have had much better luck with.
TNHunter
Thank you Trev @TNHunter . Yes, I need to keep an eye on it. I too want to keep this under 8ft for scale at the location I have it at. Can you post a picture of your tree when you have a chance? Without leaves would be great to see the structure of the tree. Any pruning suggestions to maintain a pleasing somewhat symmetrical look?
I grafed my gerardi spring 2022… 4 gerardi scions grafted to a sawed off white mulberry stump that was around 3.5 inch diameter.
Those pics are all first season growth.
This pic is Feb 2023… first pruning
Later that summer… a thunderstorm with some high winds hit and flattened my gerardi completely breaking off 3 of the scions… only 1 remained and it was bent over to the ground.
I did manage to salvage it by staking it with a tpost and using a soft rope to slowly over a few weeks pull it back upright.
I also pruned it back quite a bit so it would not catch so much air with the next storm
This is what it looked like in August… about a month after the storm flattened it.
Below is what it looks like today.
I pruned it a few weeks back and collected scionwood… which has all been used.
Those taller branch tips are around 8 ft tall
Deer can reach some of those lower limbs and will take every leaf off… but most of the fruit developes above that.
That single trunk up to 4 ft… works pretty good to minimise deer damage.
Notice that stump flat still has not completely healed over. It may this year… hope so.
PS… I will keep the tpost and rope in place … and keep it pruned 8 ft max… until that graft union fully heals.
Gerardi has big leaves and catches a lot of wind with summer storms.
TNHunter
