Good luck with zone 3 hardy mulberries. Trader and Northrup would be about “it” from what I’ve found. Trader still suffers tip dieback from extended periods of -25 or lower here. My two trees have seen a low of -38 and numerous weeks of -25 to -35 and are still alive. So far, the fruit produced haven’t been worth picking. A large one might be 1/2" long
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Beggers and choosers I spose
I root grafted some Kokuso and IL everbearing. They are now starting to grow. Outdoor grafts nothing yet. Root grafts were kept indoors. Zone 5 but I have a zone 3 cabin. I ordered a Trader mulberry to try at the cabin.
IL Everbearing made it through one winter here, but not the next. I don’t think it can take extended periods of -20 to -30
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Had a nice sized ripe plump gerardi mulberry yesterday 5/16/2023.
This is from a graft that i did last year.
It had a nice fruity flavor, some nice sweetness… but i really did not detect any tartness.
Strudledog… in North GA described his as sweet/tart.
Perhaps my flavor developes more with age… and as the heat comes on here.
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My Gerardi fruit is OK, not great. I’d say mine are a little short on Brix and acid actually for my preference. Kind of ‘flat’ flavor. Like you say, hopefully better with age or weather. It sounds like mulberry flavor can vary quite a bit year to year
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I grow 22 varieties here is SoCal, mostly multi-grafted trees. I like the Australian Green/White Pakistan fruits the best, super sweet and always consistent flavor. But this season my Contorted mulberry has a lot of fruits (100 or so on 3 branches) and it is very sweet. I’m surprised it tastes better than the Shangri La, Tice, Worlds Best, Oscar,Jan’s Best, and Gerardi. Maybe when my Oscar and Gerardi fruits again nest season it will taste better. Black Pakistan is still very good and I would say it’s my second best and tied with the Sangue e Latte. Still have not had any fruits on my large grafted branches of Persian mulberry so my favorites may change. I had many fruits on my Red Himalayn tree and was not impressed, I thought it would taste better, I like the Black Pakistan fruits better.
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I’ve never seen more than a handful of fruits on my contorted. They’re teeny tiny little things, too.
Yes, my tree had those same tiny fruits last year. This year it’s about the size of Jan’s Best, still skinny fruits but it tastes so good. I will post a photo of the fruits. I would say the fruit is only 1/2"-3/4" long, and they do not keep long, need to eat it day it is picked. Just picked the fruits late yesterday to grow out seeds, and a few fruits are already showing mold today.
Guess I’ll be shopping for a new mulberry. The storm this past few days blew my silk hope over and snapped it at the trunk. I had just grafted some Pakistan on it too… ;-(
That looks saveable to me. I’ve had similar issues with mulberries, especially ones grown from cuttings. The top growth can outpace the roots, making them prone to lodging. I had a big Illinois everbearing on its own roots that blew over very much like yours. I drove 3 or 4 1” hardwood stakes into the ground at an angle. I used nylon webbing to lash the trunk upright. Use a loose bowline at the trunk end, and position them as high up as practical. Then pull the nylon webbing tight at the stake end and secure with a couple of hitches. Leave the straps in place for an entire season or two and the roots will have some help keeping the tree upright. Don’t hesitate to do some pruning, too. Reduce the moment above ground, increase the moment below ground, and let that vigorous willowy beast do what it does best.
I don’t see a split, snapped, or damaged trunk in the pic, but you can similarly use webbing to draw even a moderate sized split together until the cambium can heal over. Im constantly doing some of that with my mulberries as I frequently pull the branches down to train them low and the weight of them laden with fruit and leaves in the wind also tends to make them split. I’ve tried some different remedies. This Oscar tree received the deluxe treatment- orange nylon webbing (free from the lumberyard) and limbs pleached together for long term crotch support.
With a little bit of effort, I wouldn’t think your tree needs to be replaced. If all that’s happened is the trunk tipped over, maybe some torn roots
, but shouldn’t really even be set back much I’d think. Of course I’m making all sorts of assumptions from a small picture. Maybe I’m misreading what I’m seeing. But surely you have a lot invested in a tree this size. Why not give it a shot?
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Yes, please do
Here’s my contorted mulberry photos I just took a few days ago.
Fruit is sweet, it surprised me since I didn’t expect much on the taste.
Just took a sugar reading today, brix =24, that’s pretty good. Only the Red Himalayan and Australian Green is sweeter.
Black Pakistan, brix =18,
Red Himalayan, brix =23
Australian Green/White Pakistan, brix = 29
A friend told me what variety this contorted mulberry is, from Florida.
Callie’s Delight Contorted Mulberry
It’s a bud mutation of a non-fruiting contorted mulberry that was being sold at the nursery. The lady who purchased it noticed her tree had fruits and named it above. So I guess it is considered a rare one, a keeper.
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Wow, those are decent sized and pretty decent productivity too. What would account for a sudden spontaneous trebling of fruit size? We’re all familiar with fruit being a bit small and lower quality the first couple of years, but this is on another level. How tall and old is your tree. What do we know about mulberry gametes?
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I believe that tree is salvageable , as @hobilus said it could be staked up , or cut where red marks are , and it likely will send up a new structure , blue as below .Processing: 732C0B0C-57B4-4453-8BAC-0AE94264C10C.jpeg…
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No not really, the graft just started to grow good now. That is how most of my grafted mulberries grow. When I grafted the first white pakistan mulberry to my large in ground rootstock Black Pakistan, it took 3 years before full size fruits and full crops started to happen.
Check out how crazy my Thai Dwarf/World’s Best tree (grafted) is growing now after 3 years.
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They’ll be big before you know it.
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We’re there only certain branches that fruited? Did you see any small fruits or male flowers? Any chance you got viable seed?
My ‘Unryu’ contorted mulberry is almost 100% stamenate flowers. It’s well established, too. The fruits I had were from a cutting grown from this tree. It was a pretty well established tree. Not big like mine is now, but 4-5’ tall and at least as wide. It made a couple of dozen fruit at most and they were comically small. Yours are nice looking. It would interesting to grow a cutting from your tree and see how it behaves in terms of its sexual expression. Mulberries are known for spontaneously switching, but might there be some ‘memory’ of its expression held in the cutting?
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@manfromyard
Another idea is to try to live with the tree in that leaning position. ?
Be easier to pick , for sure !
Maybe put landscaping fabric under it, plant some herbs , flowers, etc. so as to not have to try mowing under it ?
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