@Bradybb –
The plant is still young and small so I was not concerned about distributing roots. But going from a 5 gallon to a 15 gallon would be a different story.
Plants don’t have a “memory”. The shock of transplant will cause many hormonal reactions throughout the interacting network of cells. Given suitable soil it will start developing adventurous roots.
Ficus is a Genus in the mulberry family, Moraceae. Technically all true figs are mulberries!
Yea I do the same thing. I have lost some young plants when I inadvertently disturbed the roots. Once bigger, I cut the with a knife!
I took a peak at my nigra, dormant in the garage. It’s hard to see as it is in a corner with 10 feet of fig plants in front of it. While collecting your cutting today I pulled a few out to get a look. Looks great! Is alive, no tip burn. Mine is close to the size of yours now. A rather young plant to let go dormant, but it has to get used to the routine. I have no room indoors. I have 3 orange trees, African Blue Basil, Arp rosemary, Mexican oregano, a number of pluot and peach seedlings, and rooted figs. About to start onions. I usually start them today the 15th, I will in a few days. Too busy this year!
@Richard, I’ve been itching to ask you this. Didn’t you have a Morus nigra tree that you uprooted because your wife didn’t like it? Just curious…
It was also on M. alba rootstock and growing too vigorously. It had to come out. This time we’ll see how it goes with the bush.
Although sometimes it’s hard to actually understand it until you’ve muddled through for a while. I like to study up before a new undertaking, but I usually find I have a much different (usually better) understanding of the reference material when I revisit it after some initial attempts.
But, back on the main subject, is it relatively easy to maintain M nigra as a shrub in a pot? Or can it be covered and protected like figs? I’m definitely outside the hardiness zone, but I try to not let that stop me.
On its own roots, not when grafted on M. alba aka Russian Mulberry.
The plant looks good and it appears you can maintain it as needed. Cool! Thanks for that info, it’s very helpful info for my experiments with nigra.
I’ve got one that I’ve moved in and out of the house for almost a decade.
It is grafted on what I would only assume is an alba seedling. It fruits yearly, but not heavily. They are great, but only about half of them ripen properly.
It is in a 10 gal pot and has been for at least 5 years. It is only about 5 feet tall (pot and all) and has been getting larger by about 2-3 inches a year.
Its due for a a full repotting. It is healthy and looks good up until about September each year.
I wish it were a bit more vigorous.
Scott
I heard reports from high humidity areas in California where nigra does poorly. It seems to like low humidity. Might be an issue here. I still want to play with it and I can give it full sun too.That may help?
By high humidity in CA you’re referring to marine influenced areas with something like 78% rel. humidity at 62°F in Spring and Fall?
Yes, and other areas like down south. In the south the more tender alba’s are preferred like Pakistan, and Shangri La. The humidity is too much for nigras apparently.
Hmm …
My property has the cool, humid Spring mentioned above but then a warm dry Summer and Fall. No problems are expected here. I believe the failures farther up the coast are from lack of heat alone and the failures in the southern US are from the heat+humidity combination.
Yes. A resounding yes. IEB does very well here though. And Red Mulberry trees do well.
Yeah the south is hot and humid. I’m mild with moderate humidity so maybe we will do OK?
Moderate compared to the south. I have been south and west and I’ll take 110F in California every time over 90F in Florida in the summer. Night can be even worse no breeze and the humidity needs a knife to cut.
Today I shortened the stalk to 3 feet and removed an errant side branch.
I also purchased one of the shrubs at Walter Anderson and with all the recent questions on this site just checked the Dave Wilson page, they list the dwarf as Morus species “dwarf everbearing”
https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/mulberries
Hopefully your testing will give additional information about what that actually means!
And then from the forum,
http://www.davewilsonforums.com/index.php/showthread.php?t=12278
So not nigra but hopefully tasty
