Last year grafts won't wake up

I made two Morus nigra grafts onto a Morus alba last year. One grew 5" and the other 8". One is still holding on to a leaf. Neither is waking up as of May 21. What to do?

Here are some pics. The unions are nicely callused and the grafts are alive. Shall I just wait?




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Buy n alarm clock and hook it up by the tree, set it for 6am everyday.

A picture of the whole plant would help, my guess is the energy is going to a more sunny part of the plant. If that is the whole plant, i’ll reconsider my thoughts. Mulberries are pretty late to grow generally but in your climate it should be active. Are they well watered or too dry? sun hrs per day? fertility?

Part shade. Well watered and fertlized. This is one branch. The other branch which is alba is growing very well. It does not compete with this one.

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It may be “competing” for sap even if it’s not competing for light. My guess is that’s what is happening, the tree has “decided” to focus energy on the alba branch and neglect this one, it may even be on the path to self-prune it. Unless you are very attached to the alba, I’d cut back all the new growth on the alba to encourage it to push the nigra branch.

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It’s a bit confusing when I read all posts and replies, a couple of questions for clarity:

  1. Is there more than one tree grafted? Or

  2. Did you graft two branches of the same Morus Alba? Perhaps a picture of the whole tree or trees would be helpful.

  3. Is this tree or trees in full sun? It appears to be shaded! Mulberry’s love sun, so if it’s in a partial shade you will likely need to transplant it to get the energy it needs to grow.
    Dennis
    Kent, wa

It is one tree that forks very low into two branches. One I left as an alba. The other I top worked with two nigra grafts. I will post pictures on Wednesday

Tip prune or heavily prune the active growth to signal for it to push growth out of the grafts.

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Update. Patience pays. One bud is starting to leaf out