My White Ivory from Whitman now has tiny little fruit, isn’t that amazing, lol.
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Hi All, we are building a mulberry orchard! So far 88 trees in the ground with 50 different varieties. Before we do our first pruning this winter does anyone have advice on training systems or favorite pruning methods? We can’t find a lot of information out on the internet about managing mulberry orchards. I’ve posted a video with summary below. Happy to answer any questions. Have a great day! - Mark
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I have a mulberry tree that I thought it was a grape vine last year as we never seen a wild one in our backyard. One day it popped up in the strawberry pot. It grew to less than half a foot. Then, early this year I planted it in the ground with the strawberry. It grew up to 9 feet tall. The bird must have poop this one out. Look like I need to walk around the neighborhood to find grafting material. I don’t want to wait to find out if this is a male or a female or bisexual.
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The only Mulberries I have experience with are Geraldi and Illinois Everbearing. Geraldi is dwarf so it needs very little pruning. IE is the opposite. Each branch can grow 8ft or more in a season. I trained mine to grow 3 trunks hoping to slow its growth but that didn’t work. Its 12ft wide and 12 ft high in a few years. At 7ft spacing it would require major pruning several times each year. I don’t know if other mulberries are as vigorous as IE.
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Right. We have both Gerardi and IE in the orchard. Gerardi, David Smith, along with a couple of Nigras should all be slower growing. But I think most of the others will be like IE so I think we’re going to have to make our first cuts near the ground. I hate pruning so much off when they’re starting out but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run. - Mark
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Hi @dingdongsgarden,
Have you seen the video of the mulberry farmer in the Philippines who gets 7 crops from his IE trees?
He defoliates the leaves completely after fruiting (45 days) and cuts back every branch “by half” no matter how long it is.
I think we have 22 now ( nowhere near 88) and ours are young so I have not yet tried this. I would like to get a second summer/fall crop if possible.
The leaves could be also be used for mulberry tea or animal feed.
Your rooting success rates are also much better than mine
Best of luck
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That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing. Sometimes I wish we had the year-round heat of the Philippines but since we visit there occasionally and melt, I am also sometimes thankful that we don’t have the heat!
In the Southern U.S. like Florida, you can definitely get at least two crops by pruning. Check out Jan Doolin’s YouTube site (@jandoolin6675), she gets two crops every year no problem. Unfortunately we can only maybe get a second crop up here in the cooler parts of the PNW by using a hoophouse or shuffling the mulberries indoors and out. You’re probably in a warmer zone than us. Let me know how it goes!
I’ve found whatever stimulates the bud at the crotch of a petiole (leaf stem) to grow may create a new branch with mulberries. Pruning does it as well as last year I saw it happen when I forgot to fertilize a Kip Parker in a 15 gallon pot and growth slowed. When I realized my mistake and added fertilizer, new branches formed with fruit… no pruning needed, just stress I guess.
Rooting success… ours improved when we left the cuttings in darkness for a whole month before exposing to light. That seemed to help us. Not sure if it works for others.
Have a good one!
Mark
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Two mulberries grafted on one tree. I’ve been eating fruit of Siam Jumbo for 10 days. Whereas M nigra isn’t even pushing growth yet. Pretty amazing to me…!!
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I have a couple of tropical mulberries that seem to be fried because they tried to push too early.
Then I have a few of the long thin types (Himalayan, Saharanpur, etc) that are starting to push.
In the third category, none of my 1/2 dozen of so Nigra varieties are doing anything. They usually are among the latest fruit trees of any kind to wake up.
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Just got an email from Lucille at Whitmans farms… confirming shipment of my Oscar mulberry… and a couple Crandall clove currants.
Cant wait to try those.
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i have Riverview and Northrup. both are around 6ft. but no fruit yet. going to prune them hard this spring and put the manure to them to try and induce fruiting. got some trader mulberries coming this spring as well.
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Let me know what you think of the Traders in a couple years. Mine survive and make fruit, but the fruit is so small that they’re not worth picking IMO. Maybe I just got a couple bad ones…
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I bought 2 Trader last year. Small probably TC. One went to my zone 3b cabin and one stayed here in zone 5b. Would I be correct in thinking it will set fruit without a pollinator? No other mulberries at my zone 3b.
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I couldn’t tell you to be honest. I’d ask Jim Walla
Mulberries in general fruit parthenocarpically. I have around 15-20 varieties, with no male pollinators. Fruit is seedless, but fruit forms without issue.
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How is Nikita’s White different to Beautiful day? Can you please tell me more ? I already have beautiful day and dont know if i should grow Nikita’s White. thank you.
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I started some red mulberries in December. I will transplant to their final “resting place” April next year (2025). Do any of you have recommendations for container size, they are in quarts which seems small given their current size?
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Did you start those from seeds? They look great. As for pots, last year I went from rooted cutting to 1g, then 5g, then 15g by the end of the season. Mulberries can grow very fast.
Lucas,
Thanks for the info. Wow - 15 gal. I will soon move them to 1 gal then and mid summer move them to 3 gal. The seeds were supplied by @Livinginawe .I started them in a handmade growing tent (4’x4’8’) with a space heater, lights and mylar on 3 sides and top. I made it to start persimmons, but the mulberries liked the arrangement better.
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I have Gerardi in year 3 now… it starts ripening fruit around May 10 here. Growth wise… mine grew 8 shoots 6ft long in one season… in some locations people say it is a slow grower… not true here. Easily kept around 8 ft with pruning.
The berries have a nice fruity flavor and mild sweetness… no tartness when fully ripe (black fully swolen). If eaten when partially red… you get some tartness… but also some grassy flavor which I do not like. I prefer them fully ripe.
I have Silk Hope in year 2… and Oscar planted this spring.
Should be getting first ripe silk hope berries soon.
I am in zone 7b southern middle TN.
My location is bad for late frost… it often warms up in early March… then we get a couole nights in the 20s a few weeks later.
Mulberries that come out early with spring warm ups like that (pakistan, tice, jans best, for example) would not make it here.
I would like to add a couple more mulberry trees.
I am not into sweet only fruits… brix of 40 with no complex flavor including some tartness… would not impress me at all. Yuck.
I think i will really like silk hope and oscar once they get into production.
They have (I have heard) a more complex flavor including tartness and sweetnes.
Gerardi … i would say has good flavor here.
Not very good, not great… but good.
I think silk hope and oscar are going to score as very good flavor… with some tartness in the mix.
So far all 3 of these have done well here on spring wake up… not coming out too early.
I have considered a few other varieties but most of them seem to be known to have issues with spring wakeup… and would likely get toasted here in a year or two. Or… their flavor seems very likely to not be any better than silk hope or oscar.
Are there any mulberries that rank up there with silk hope and oscar… or better… flavor wise… that are known to handle the spring wake up thing well that you can grow in ground z7b ???
IE is not being considered here… Silk Hope is… popcorn disease here in the south east.
I would like for some with experience with Kokuso to describe the flavor, sweetness, tartness, in detail… the reviews of it seem to be very mixed… from blaugh watery to as good as IE.
I am wondering if the people that really like it are people that are ok with sweet only fruit. Some people are perfecrly happy with sweet only… but that is not me.
If it juat has a nice complex fruity flavor and decent sweetness (no tartness)… I might still be interested in trying it. I understand it ripens all fruit in like a 2-3 week period.
I think that other than my location having late frost issues… it obviously grows mulberries very well (greardi growing 8 shoots 6ft one season).
With that kind of exceptional growth… perhaps the flavor of most varieties will be at their best here toooo.
Thanks
TNHunter
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