Hello everyone, I’m quite new to growing fruit and am trying a young dwarf mulberry in a container. Since I bought it, the edges of the new growth seem to be curling upwards. I’ve posted some images below and can post more if needed. The plant is growing on an apartment balcony in Queensland Australia so it’s been pretty hot and windy. It probably gets 6-8 hours of sunlight a day (morning and afternoon (shaded during midday)) and I generally water every 2-3 days until water flows from the bottom of the pot. It does get battered by the wind quite a bit so some of the leaves are quite damaged (see the last 2 images) and I’m thinking this may be the problem. There is no damage to the stems and I have checked for aphids and mites and found nothing.
Thank you for any help you can give.
What species of mulb is it? What cultivar?
If it is a Red mulberry (Morus rubra) from the humid Eastern United States, then it might not like the arid climate in Australia.
If it is a Black mulberry, it might pull through.
Mulbs like to grow long roots. It might benefit from in-ground planting, rather than pot culture.
Or if you’re in an apartment - and cannot plant in ground - then the tree might benefit from being transplanted to a bigger pot.
Curled leaves indicate stress, not enough root room as Matt mentions, too much water, not enough water are the usual suspects.
My guess is calcium deficiency, the term used is “cupping”.
It is a dwarf Morus nigra so I think it should be okay in Australia. I’ll definitely re-pot it this afternoon and hopefully that fixes the problem. I read that calcium deficiency is usually caused by unstable water uptake by the roots so it seems the two issues might be linked? Thanks for your help guys!