I bought a large potted Pakistan Mulberry tree and moved it into the garage over the freezing winter after all the leaves fell off.
It kept dormant in the garage until a few days ago, green leaf buds starting popping up everywhere. I think there’s fruit buds too.
Should I leave it in the garage (very limited sunlight) or move it outside under a covered awning (more sunlight)? No more freezing temps, but it does get down to the low 40’s at night. Will budding this early cause me to lose fruit this year?
moving it into the shade on the north side of a building will slow its progress but if it’s too far along your next frost is likely to zap the buds. its also likely at this point your garage is probably warmer than the outside air so probably a good idea to do what i suggested. my climates alot different than yours. see what others in your area have to say.
im also in WA state. my indoor black pakistan is in the same fruiting stage as yours. i would leave it in the garage until may or june. I bought outside too early last year in April and the fruits drop due to the change in temp was still not stable. i would prefer to grow it in greenhouse and keep it there, or just keep outside. you dont have to bring inside only if you want it to have fruit very early.
You dont list your state of residence, but Im assuming based on your statement that youll have no more frost that youre in the southern end of the PNW.
Yeah, ‘Pakistan’ is very low chill, so you might try doing what you can to keep it dormant as long as possible in the future. I have a few low chill mulberries in pots here and theyve done fine. I just noticed today that my ‘Persian’ is starting to push. Im sure my others wont be too far behind. If youre truly not going to get any frost then sure, might as well move it into the sun. If you keep it in the dark, itll push some growth that youll have to harden off to sun once the days get longer. Fruit is formed on new growth, so you should be ok. Youll find that tree will probably push a couple of ft of growth on each branch, and will flower and set fruit for a few weeks or perhaps more.
In not that familiar with ‘Pakistan’ but my ‘Himalayan Red’ probably started pushing mid-March or so. I set it out in my high tunnel in mid April if memory serves, and it fruited for me all of June. I wasnt about to baby it. Since its not hardy here I was fully prepared to let it fail but it seemed to thrive with minimal fuss, so now I have it and a couple of others.