First mulberry I ever grafted was just a routine T-bud placement in midsummer with budstick collected that day.
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Mulberry can be very hard to graft or very easy. The longer i do it the more i think the problem is the same as grapes which is flooding. Maples are like that to which is why they are tapped for syrup. The sap gushes out of cuts in the spring. That is good to know if your ever in a survival situation with nothing to drink cut off a maple branch of any maple and it will fill a 5 gallon bucket with watery sap in a day. It can be the difference in living or not. Back to my theory mulberry bleed heavily and so i think certain grafts will be more successful than others. Grafts like tbuds with little damage will likely be the best. Grafts like cleft i suspect will be the worst with mulberry because of the extent of the damage. Clefts have worked for me before but i suspect that was due to the location of the branch. It was a side branch with less sap flow.
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I do mostly just a simple bark graft, but since I’ve read, here, of so many people having issues…anymore, I make a couple of semi-girdling cuts in the bark of the rootstock, below the graft.
If excessive bleeding is likely to be a problem, those gashes should allow ‘bleeding off’, rather than flooding the graft.
I’m not removing bark, just making a couple of quick slashes most of the way around the stem.
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i did that in 21’ and this year on my alba and they still didnt take. I.D.K?
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anyone had success just cutting larger material, like 1.5-2 inch thick wood and burying it?
I vaguely recall reading somewhere that this was a means of propagating mulberries.
I think I’m getting old…lol
Scott
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I’d seen that…claims you could plant a truncheon as big as a man’s arm and it would root and grow.
I stuck a couple hundred M.alba/hybrid cuttings along fencelines one winter, ranging from about 3/4 inch diameter, up to 3 inches.
Mary a one took, as we say.
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I love it. Apologize if this has been asked, I’m just reading this thread, but on your root graft, does that mean you dug up a root cutting and grafted directly to that piece of root?
I don’t have any mulberry rootstock, but am planning on getting some scionwood to graft to a root sucker. Now that I’ve been looking, I’m liable to have more scions than places to put them. The notion of using a piece of root is appealing.
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I’ve grafted a few hundred in the hot pipe. Sweated first, they don’t bleed too badly. Bark or cleft grafts grow just fine. Copious suckers will follow though.
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I found this link
I’m going to try it.
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I purchased Adara scions from Marta a few years ago. My impression was that she is very knowledgeable about most propagation techniques. No doubt her root grafting methods will work in many cases. A text that covers root grafting to some extent is Hartmann and Kesterson’s Plant Propagation Principles available in our King County library system.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Hi Preston,
Which variety did you graft? How Many days did it take to form a callous union? Are you growing them indoors?
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Is that after one full growing season?
When planted in the ground, do you bury the graft union?
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Hey @DennisD. Unfortunately I forgot exactly when I made these grafts. Sometime late spring. I had some extra scion so I gave root grafting a try and both grafts took. Picture was taken after they went dormant in October.
@murky yes this is one seasons growth but I couldnt have neglected them anymore than I did. I didn’t water them a single time and I hardly got any growth out of them for that reason. Yes the graft union was buried when I up potted these.
The variety is Gerardi.
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Yes, I grafted to root that was the same diameter as the scion. It seemed to work, but later the neighboring ranchers cattle got in through a gate left open and ran around in the garden. I’d try it again if I had a chance.
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Thanks Preston
I will give it a try! My mature IE has roots near the surface and air layering has not worked on IE so I will try this method.
Dennis
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Once you made the root graft, did you then put it in soil mix in a tall pot? Did you put it on a heat pad or keep it indoors? That looks very interesting.
This was my first attempt at grafting anything… bark graft … gerardi mulberry scion to a whacked off white mulberry stump.
It went incredibly well.
Yes i used a tarp strap for my final wrap and it seemed to work great.
I am in Tennessee and grafting mulberry sure seems to work well here. I got over 6 ft of growth the first season.
TNHunter
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I thought you may have said that was your first graft, but I discounted it because the result looked so good.
The prep of rootstock and scion both look first rate.
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Today I did a winter experiment to see if I can pre-callous the IE root graft, then grow some indoors and hold others outdoors for spring growth. Last winter in Feb I pre calloused some Adara/plum scions about 2 weeks before topworking some of my sweet cherries about two weeks later. About half were successful. So I decided this idea posted by Marta is worth trying early on my IE.
Today I dug some root fragments varying between 3/8” to less than 1/16”. Prepared 13 root grafts (see pic) and placed them in an indoor wet spagnum moss& compost mixture, inside a dark container to shut out all light during the 2 week callousing period.
After 2 weeks I will plant maybe 2-3 indoors and set in a south facing window to allow the first light. Not sure during the shortest days if there is enough sunlight to initiate buds. The remainder I will plant in a similar manner and dig them in outdoors until spring. Once my greenhouse is warm enough at night I will bring about half into the greenhouse around mid March. I will update my progress as they succeed or fail.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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