Mulberries no work fruit

If you get a chance we’d love to see some pictures!

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Doing yardwork tomorrow will snap some :+1:t2:

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Lucky, any suggestions for SE alabama mulberries? You mentioned a good cultivar from Lee County that has been lost. Lee cnty is in my neck of the woods. Any other good ones that come to mind that can take the heat and humidity? I’ve seen a few wild ones around that are sweet but they have small fruits and light crop load. Looking for something sweet for the kiddos.

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My mystery mulbs. My guess is whites. One has leaves a bit darker, maybe a red/wh hybrid (?)
The birds love em. More than enough for us all :blush:

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My favorite mulberry is ‘Silk Hope’. It takes north Florida heat and humidity very well, so it should do very well in SE Alabama. It has large, juicy and very flavorful fruit that ripen over a prolonged period. The fruit quality has been compared to ‘Illinois Everbearing’ but (in my opinion) it is juicier than ‘IE’ when fully ripe. It also taste great when slightly under-ripe, with a flavor that is more pronounced than most other mulberries. It is a strong and vigorous grower, so I can’t recommend it for a small yard…In that case, you would want to stick with something like ‘Gerardi Dwarf’. ‘Illinois Everbearing’ is also an excellent mulberry (large tree) that would do well in your area, if you have the room for it. So many crops of mulberries are lost from late hard freezes…No worry for those three, as they all bud out (usually) after all hard freezes have passed. That is the main problem with ‘Shangri La’ (which in my opinion is not very flavorful). It is the first mulberry to leaf out, and then a hard freeze comes and you have lost your crop.

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I think all my mulberry grafts took except one . That rootstock seems sick . What I noticed when searching for wild trees to graft is some have both male and female flowers . I found 3 of these and one female tree with a male branch . I have seen them change sex on a damaged branch plus one changed color of the fruit when cut back . Went from black to white / lavender .

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Silk Hope is better, here In KY, than IE.
I reccomend it highly
Never met a M.rubra in AL that wasn’t good.

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Walking in the woods with dogs today on Fort Campbell and stumbled upon this find. Very, sweet and juicy. My first taste of mulberries. Must be a wild red mulberry tree I guess?

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Is there any way to increase production on mulberry trees? I have some 2nd year Gerardi plants from Whitman Farms and the fruit is few and far between. Do I have to let the plants mature more or can I fertilize with something. Thanks in advance.

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Cow manure helps them grow but the trees are still young and the fruits will be few for a year or 2 longer. Some woodchips help to retain moisture so a bag of those around the base will help.

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I have got to get a mulberry…

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I just got back from a walk around Northeast Philly. Mulberries are ripe here and all over the sidewalks and walkways. I’m sure these are not named cultivars. I gathered several berries from three trees. There were about dime sized and not very tasty. Stained my fingers up good. I’m going to keep sampling to see if they get any sweeter.

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Mature mulberry trees produce like crazy, just be patient.

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Will have to be patient then its just you start to see some results get a little amped up.

gerardi’s are slow growers. Not sure if yours is planted out in the open, but as with most fruit trees, full-sun would help minimize fruit-drop.

I noticed all of the mulberries in the Houston area this year produced like crazy…I think we had closer to 350 to 400 chill hours as opposed to the 200 that we have had the last few years. The house that we bought four years ago has a native black/red Mulberry that has never produced and this year it was loaded. I really think a good dormancy and adequate chill hours makes a huge difference even with the more Southern population of mulberries. Just my thoughts/observations.

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After awhile you can tell female and male red mulberries apart with a glance. This is a male leaf ( not saying females don’t have these but most of their leaves are not like this one)


This is a female leaf

I’ve drastically increased my mulberry tree numbers until I now have 100+.

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Love mulberries! Season is still going strong!

!

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We say they’re no work, but some of my mulberries do get diseased. Nothing terrible, but if the leaves show up with spots, they tend to produce less fruit, and the fruit itself may also have a few carpels that don’t ripen. If I grew them professionally, I’d probably want to spray them with something.

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