Although I really want some mulberrys I have never been around any other than when I was quite small. I invite very little about them. My grandmother had a tree that I would get some berries from, if I could beat the birds to them.
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While we build our house, we are staying at a friend’s house. That have 2 mulberry trees, which they say have never fruited. The trees have been here several years. I have heard that there are male and female trees and that females can be self fertile. I thought maybe they had two male trees.
I went out to investigate and this is what I found:
To me, it looks like berry formation. The first tree has many more than the second.
What do you guys see?
My main reason, other than curiosity, was to determine if these are worth taking cuttings from. I would like several mulberry but don’t want to put time nor water into something unless it will be good.
You don’t need a male.
Females aren’t “self fertile” but produce berries regardless of whether they are pollinated or not, this goes for all mulberries
You may be able to find seedling mulberries near those two… that you could dig up / transplant and use for grafting on your prefered varieties.
I dont know for sure what grows well in AZ… but I used to watch a youtube channel of a guy from AZ that turned his entire yard into a food forest. Best I remember he had a Pakistan mulberry that produced well there.
There is a youtube channel for (Edge of Nowhere Farm) in AZ… and they grow several varieties of mulberry there.
Don’t screw around unless you are bored and want a hobby or broke. If you want mulberry to eat, get an Illinois Everbearing or a possibly a red mulberry. Just make sure you got the room and if you want to pick them…keep the tree short. I didn’t, I like to wildcraft trees and they took off. Sadly, had to cut them down, they grew to monster trees in no time. Best trees I ever grew for a vigorous, fast growing nature.
I am just planting a dwarf mulberry in-ground. Nigra had mixed reviews. Don’t care, I let the tree tell me unless it is widely known to be a dud. You get all sort of advice online. While it is good to hear from others, in the end you have to just try things. As it stands now, it is the Nigra or nothing for mulberries for me. The only thing limiting me is $$ and space. Although not rich, I have lots more $$ than space and time. So, the choice always boils down to; should I throw some $$ at a thing to see what happens or should I just leave the money behind for someone else to spend for me?
If Nigra is a dud…it gets pulled out and something else takes its place. Doing that allowed me to have experience with nearly 100 varieties of trees since '08 on a small 3/4-acre property. If you are in a warm climate, you should specialize in figs. It is a big gift being able to grow actual fig trees instead of a fig bush and have to armor plate them for the winter.
Finding an actual nigra is very difficult, many places label pure Alba or hybrids as Niga when they aren’t, there definitely aren’t any dwarf Nigras and “dwarf everbearing” is known to be a pretty bland and small berry
I want mulberry to eat primarily but not opposed to using them for firewood and/or fodder also.
I prefer that any mulberry I grow be a good producer of good tasting fruit
just so you get things clear… The first picture shows only female flowers/fruitlets. The second picture, which I presume is from a different tree, shows female flowers/fruitlets but also one male flower. So the second tree would be one of the rare monoecious mulberries. they usually are either male or female but some rare trees exist that have both male and female flowers. I can’t tell for sure why there are no fruit forming because mulberries are parthenocarpic and so actually they don’t need pollination for fruit forming but one reasonn could be that birds eat all the fruit even before they have a chance to ripen. This is what is happening in my orchard if I don’t manage to scare of the birds…
When mulberries are ripening… many will go from almost ready to ready over night.
Visit your mulberries at first light and harvest the ripe fruit before the birds start feeding.
I am hoping that once I get 8-10 mulberry trees producing fruit… it will sort of be a case of we get all we want and the birds do to… everyone is happy.
It is like that with my goumi bushes… they produce so many berries… the birds feed on them like crazy and we do too and between the two of us we still dont eat all the ripe berries.
