Of Morus, or plants in general?
Just a mention, not history and step-by-step instructions?
Notice the Felco pruners 
Among Morus species, M. nigra is notorious for being difficult to propagate via cuttings. That’s why most M. nigra plants sold are grafted on M. alba rootstock. Also the longterm longevity of M. nigra on its own roots is not very well documented. We know they are very long-lived, but are these old trees grafted trees, seedlings or own-root layered trees? That’s why it would be so interesting to hear from @Livinginawe as his air-layered M. nigra progresses.
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I also read in Bulgaria they were having a hard time propagating an old Morus nigra tree. They seem to be hard. heck , from seed it was not easy at all. It would stop growing for months, and then just grow like crazy for a few weeks and stop again. Very confusing and very quick for the bark to harden off and lose it’s green color. Never seen it happen so fast. in any other plant.
I myself would be happy with grafted trees, I’m not going to be around to see it get old anyway.
So I will backup that way for sure.Besides I doubt even my so called zone 6 plant will actually work here. For now it is protected.
I wonder if DWN is having difficulties. Certainly they are propagating Morus on their own roots by the hundreds.
I just need to mention that a lot of mulberry trees get sold by nurseries as nigra, when they aren’t. Just last week I saw a nursery in Fort Lauderdale, FL selling Pakistan mulberries (Morus macroura) as Morus nigra. Go figure…
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@chriso - I believe DWN sourced their plant material from the NCGS repository in Winters, CA.
@Drew51 - I probably posted this elsewhere in our M. nigra discussions over the last few years, but anyway (!) here’s the distributional range listed on the GRIN species data page:
Distributional Range:
Cultivated (widely cult.)
Naturalized
Asia-Temperate
WESTERN ASIA: Afghanistan, Iran
MIDDLE ASIA: Kazakhstan
Asia-Tropical
INDIAN SUBCONTINENT: India (n.w.), Pakistan
Europe
Europe (s.)
Other (probably native in s.w. Asia)
Next time you see Tom ask him about it!
On my seedling I guess I have to test how hardy it is. I’m approaching it as if it is not until I know. Heck it could be a male tree too. I won’t know for a couple years or longer.
I have a 2nd seedling too, it didn’t grow beyond 3 inches, so it probably will die. It’s in the garage too.
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The record says it has naturalized in Kazakhstan, which is north of the Himalayas at average latitude 48°N.
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Good info! I’m at 42° 34’ 49" N / 83° 1’ 49" W So maybe this plant will work.
If you ever do see Tom at some event do ask about the cloning. And also ask if he would be interested in a male from Bulgaria for breeding new cultivars. I don’t know what I have yet, but I have heard of no breeding programs at all for Morus nigra, it’s the 3 or 4 cultivars, and that is it!
The mother tree comes from vratsa bulgaria
43° 12’ 36" N / 23° 33’ 45" E Looks like it could work, wow! it should be colder there!
If I do have a tree hardy here and it is a male, breeding could result in opening up a whole new market. But demand might not really be there, still this is a very cool tree male or female. Let’s hope I don’t kill it first. I have no more seeds.
Thanks!
The mother tree
It is in trouble and what do trees in trouble do? They produce male and female parts, so my seed was produced like this. There is no other mulberry tree near this one. And the seeds germinated! This is not uncommon. Especially for mulberries which can switch sexes at times. So all genetics in my plant come from this tree at the location I posted. Wow!
I found some info on how diverse nigra can be.
ISHS Acta Horticulturae 760: XXVII International Horticultural Congress - IHC2006: II International Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources of Horticultural Crops
IN SITU CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF A NATIVE POPULATION OF BLACK MULBERRY (MORUS NIGRA L.) IN SLOVAKIA
Authors: J. Brindza, J. Holecyová, D. Tóth
Keywords: Morus nigra L., fruit, preservation, variability, evaluation, nutritional value
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.760.58
Abstract:
Black mulberry (Morus nigra L.) is counted among the interesting and economically important fruit tree. On the Slovak territory there are approximately 1,500 individuals of this species. The largest part of this population is in Pukanec village and in its neighbourhood. Many trees are 200 to 300 years old and some of them are in a very bad condition. Our experimental studies were oriented on inventory, monitoring, evaluation and cataloguing of mulberry genotypes spread in Slovakia. A GPS system has localized 954 genotypes totally. In an experimental study was determined traits variability on the level of trees, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds for 480 selected genotypes. Morphometric analyses of the genotypes expressed distinct differences. Leaves length ranged from 34 to 217 mm, width 36 – 193 mm and the stem length 4 – 46 mm. On the fruit level have been found values for length in the range of 10.7 – 27.2 mm and for width 9.2 – 16.3 mm, respectively. Fruits are highly nutritious, their pH value is about 3, they contain ascorbic acid 2.26-18.9 mg.100g-1, total sugar 4.3 – 19.7 mg.kg-1 and organic acids 0.79 – 1.73 mg.kg-1. The gained experimental data will be applied for a complex evaluation of the black mulberry populations and for draft proposal oriented on their conservation in situ. The final activity will be the proposition to declare the black mulberry population for a protected species on the Slovak territory.
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More info about this Bulgarian mother tree and propagation attempts from the guy who sent me seeds.
Yes, I am from Northwest Bulgaria (EU). The most interesting is that this big tree is unique in our region (too cold). Other nigra trees grow only in southern Bulgaria or near Black sea. Many people have made attempts to propagate this variety with no success, including specialists from the local Sericulture and Agriculture Experiment Station.
My english is far from exactness.
In brief: There is only one big fruiting morus nigra tree (about 120 years old) in my region. Neither femail nor male morus nigra tree occur here except this one. In 2015 I collect seeds from dropped fruits under this tree.
Sadly the tree has a terminal fungal infection. It is dying. Thus the tree is producing male and female flowers in an attempt to propagate itself before it dies.
The article I posted earlier in this thread in Bulgarian briefly goes over the attempts to save it. It is a losing battle.
edit
Wow, i found another article that says efforts to save has been working. So I guess time will tell. The article at the ends mentions a seedling, so it is really unclear to me if the article is wishful thinking, or not? Do they mean the tree has reproduced? Yeah it has in Sterling Heights MI too! Some more good news is that the seedling near the tree is 3 years old, Obviously hardy too! It’s been a good day!
Ironic but today my seedling faces another challenge. It’s -2F right now here! I put a heater in the garage, I have a bowl of water on the ground, it has not froze yet, so it’s working out so far. My thermostat broke today so the heater is directly connected and I can’t find my thermometer. The water tells me it’s not even freezing in there! Good! At ground level too.
I have a fig forest in my garage! The nigra seedling is in there with the pomegranates and figs somewhere?
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I have been chasing the Holy Grail of rooting cuttings. Jenny Smith of NCGR Davis Wolfskill orchards claims to have all of their mulberry trees on their own roots. Since most of the plants growing there were received as cuttings or scions, I emailed Jenny and asked her to divulge her propagation techniques…but she never responded back. Maybe there are some secrets to big to tell (or perhaps she does what I do…Graft the scions and then do air layers).
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The same thing happened to me asking nurseries about their techniques. In england I saw varieties of morus nigra sold on their own roots. The nursery owner I spoke to claimed the plants are propagated by cuttings but he couldn’t tell me more details.
As I described above I had some success with softwood cuttings using a misting chamber. Those cuttings died after transplanting them but they did root. This year I will try again to root softwood cuttings. The bottlenecks for me are the small size of my misting chamber and -even more restricting- the availability of cuttings. Over the last 3 years I purchased and collected some morus nigra, but all my plants are still small.
I will try air layering one plant since it worked for you. I held back with air layering since I didn’t know if it works with morus nigra and I didn’t want to risk loosing a plant.
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Twenty years ago I heard someone ask Jenny about propagation technique (possibly not for Morus) and she referred them to Toogood’s Plant Propagation book. It’s a common textbook in horticultural classes so several of us were not surprised. But back in the day if you’d asked the question of Howard, he would invite you to the facility for some lessons and practicum!
When asking a for-profit business about their crown jewels, getting no answer is better than a misleading one.
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Thats true, I don’t (and didn’t) claim an answer. The short answer I did get was helpful already.
In the references I read (online research) there were different techniques of propagation by cuttings (Morus Nigra) described but I never saw a recommendation for softwood cuttings. I wouldn’t have found that working for me if I didn’t do the try and error game.
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Only when visiting London. I am living in germany. In my live I visited Kew Gardens twice. The first time I counted 3 Morus Nigra. Last year I ended counting 6. There may be even more. Most of them are impressive old trees.
Edit: My last visit was in 2017, time goes by…
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Ok, I was referring to the research center. But it’s not a short drive from Germany!