This is a good example of a Morus alba. Probably very hardy.
@Lucky_P … thanks.
I bag my blueberries… organza bags… without them… I would be just like you… birds would get the large majority and I would get very few good and ripe ones.
Planted Lawson Dawson in the orchard today. Late July has turned nice here and we got several nice rains the past couple weeks. Ground was nice and soft.
Going to try and plant Kip Parker tomorrow.
TNHunter
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Out of the several white fruiting mulberries I grow, this one is currently the best. It produces abundantly and has a good taste.
I call it St. Mary. I got it originally from Figbid, it was described to have been originally growing near the house of the Virgin Mary.
In our climate, it ripens in 2 waves. First one was late June/ early July and second wave is starting now, end of July.
Fun fact I grafted St. Mary and Gerardi on the same day in 2022, look at the difference I vigor between the 2. They were both grafted to an existing Illinois Everbearing.
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Is it cold hardy?
It’s likely a pure Morus alba. Therefore probably fairly cold tolerant. If you want to try it, message me this winter.
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Got Kip Parker planted out in the orchard today… at the new home site… so far Silk Hope, Oscar, Lawson Dawson, and KP.
I will get a couple Gerardi over there eventually.
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can deer get through those cages? they don’t seem narrow enough
I have 2"x4" cages around mine (they work great) and whenever I used a 4"x4" fencing deer hammer the mulberries; so frustrating
@rubus_chief … yes deer could poke their nose in my cattle panel cages… but they never have.
I am more worried about buck rubs… thus the cattle panel cages. Our deer have plenty to eat here so they dont take chances to get food from difficult protected places… when they can walk a few feet and have something good that is not protected at all.
We see deer in my orchard almost every evening… nothing inside a CP cage has even been browsed.
That very well may not work in some areas where they are more desperate for food. It works here.
They have made it hard on my thornless blackberries… I will only plant super thorney varieties going forward. I have a few kiowa out now.
Also my elderberries… (no cage) … they have picked every leaf they can reach… but I still have a good crop of berries in the top above the browse line.
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thats funny that they eat elder leaves. i guess cyanide doesnt affect deer?
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You made those cages? I’d like details.
Deer at our place eat the new growth on thorny blackberries. When they get in my enclosure, they seem to really like the thornless blackberries over other stuff - grapes, aronia, pear, blueberries, honeyberry, currants and such.
My elders are about 6-7 ft tall… and have some nice big berry clusters in the top area.
But every single leaf below about 5 ft has been eaten.
They look a little weird but the berry crop is still there.
They have not bothered clove currants or gooseberry or muscadine (at all) which are in the same area as my elders and thornless blackberries.
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That Kip Parker would be leafless here
@murky … yes I have been making cattle panel cages for years. They make a great lifetime use tomato cage 50" tall.
I have not had a buck take one on yet and I have 25 or so fruit trees protected with them.
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@murky … cattle panel can be cut into sections with these…
Those sections can be joined together with hog rings. I get all of that at our local TSC store.
@rubus_chief … that is probably the case at many locations… but not here. My silk hope is 12 ft tall… Oscar 8 ft or so… lots of leaves.
Once I get them to about 5 ft… I head them and they branch out and up from there…
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I make cattle panel cages too, but I use one panel per tree and fold it into a square with the ends meeting at a pry-open gate essentially. If my panel is a little distorted, I sometimes use a cheap aluminum carabiner to hold it together.
sometimes I drive a t-post to tie it to, but mostly I just let them free stand. The deer don’t usually move them, but they do stick their head through.
What you’ve made looks like a well built tomato cage, and I was wondering how it is constructed. The hog rings is one clue, but I see bends too. How many cattle panel pieces get hog ringed together? is it two panels folded into 90 degrees each and joined at the free ends?
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Good eyes @murky …
Yes on the smallest cage I make… I actually cut a piece of panel wide enough to make two of the sides… and I bend that panel (90 degrees) in the middle.
I make two pieces like that and then join them together to form the full cage.
It can take some effort to bend that cattle pannel but it can be done… i use a small hoe with a 36 inch hickory handle to help make those bends in the panel.
When I make a panel for a tomato cage… i make them round instead of square.
I simply cut and bend 2 sections into a C (half circle shape) and then join them together.
I do stake my tree cages down… i use 5 ft U-posts… one on each side or on opposite corners. They dont move at all with that in place.
Also if you take a close look at the corners of the cage above… where the two pieces are joined together… there are no hog rings.
On both sections that made up that cage… i left some of the cage wire in place from the next section… 2 near the top and 2 near the bottom… and to join the two pieces together… i bent that piece of cattle panel wire (about 7-8 inch long around the other section of cage to make a very strong connection… 2 near the top and 2 near the bottom.
Bending that piece of cattle panel wire like that takes some strength… and it is easier if you leave that piece of wire 7-8 inches long so you can get some leverage on it for the bend. I use a large pair of vice grips to help with that part.
Joining the two sections like that makes a very strong… all cattle panel cage… that will no doubt out live most humans.
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Was impressed to find a couple mulberries still holding on since the harvest in May-June on our red wild mulberry
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I thought that perhaps with the 2 piece construction, if a tomato cage, you might take them apart and the halves would be stackable.
why square for trees and round for tomatoes? Tell me more about how you use the hoe to bend. For the whole panel cages I make, I use my body weight mostly and my corner radii aren’t as tight.