I’ve a Pakistan Mulberry tree, which I bought from burntridgenursery last year (grafted x-large). It didn’t produce any fruits last year, which is kind of expected. I was hoping to get some fruits this year. But it didn’t produce any. The tree is growing well. I don’t see any male/female flowers, only leaves. See the pics below.
I heard about non-fruiting mulberry tree, and now I’m wondering whether this is a non-fruiting one. Burntridge lists it as a fruit tree in their fruiting plant section. So, it’s probably a fruiting mulberry tree. Do you’ve a fruiting Pakistan Mulberry tree and how long did it take to fruit?
I do have one from Burnt Ridge and there was a problem with fruiting.Mainly,when fruit appeared,they all fell off,at the green stage.That happened for at least two years.
Now,once past that point,ripening isn’t a problem.
I got a girardi mulberry from Whitman farms. It fruited the next spring. I know Pakistan mulberry is super picky with temps only really growing down to zone 9. Many will over prune mulberry trees to keep them small and not get fruit that way too.
I am planning to graft Pakistan onto M. alba this year and keep it potted in z6. I’m hoping keeping it potted will keep it small and allow it to fruit faster.
Honestly the issue with mulberries is many will grow a few feet a year. People want to keep it small so it does not reach 40 feet in a few years so they prune it. Issue is fruit comes on the second year wood so by keeping it small they end up never getting fruit by pruning off the old wood.
I once watched a video on Youtube labeled when will my plant produce. It was made by a person who owns a nursery. I think his nursery used to be based in California but is now based in Hawaii. His name is something like GreenGardenGuy1 if you want to look him up. Basically he said for 1 he had 2 plants side by side and one plant took something like 8 years to produce and another took 10 years to produce. He then cut to his satsuma mandarin and basically said well this may produce in 3-5 years but it will likely be up to 30 or 40 years before you get the true amazing taste people talk about satsuma mandarin. He then cut to his apple and said that a customer bought the apple tree expecting it to be apples like were in his country as he was foreign. I guess it fruited and the customer complained saying it did not taste like a true apple of that variety from his country and the person making the video returned it. The person making the video said it got better every year but it took time. What he was saying was it is not predictable when something will produce and when it does produce it can take a few years longer to get the true taste of the fruit and a abundant crop.
I rooted a Pakistan mulberry in the spring of 2020. In 2021 we got about a dozen fruit and they were ok. The tree was probably 4’ tall in the spring. This year it’s over 6’ and there are several dozen fruit on it and most are pretty tasty.
I have it in a ~15 gal pot with a fig tree. The pot sits on concrete to keep it from putting roots into the ground. I do keep telling myself that I’m going to pull it out of the pot, cut the root ball in half and put it in its own pot, just haven’t done it yet.
That’s Bill Merrill.He didn’t really own a nursery in Fremont,CA but installed mostly permaculture landscapes and his yard,particularly the back was packed with fruiting plants.My first taste of Pawpaw came from there.
I agree with him regarding my satsumas trees. They are finally better with age. That’s what growing fruit taught me, it’s a long game. I now look at everything with that frame of reference.
Btw, I did chop my Pakistan mulberry down, and they still are not sending out fruit buds. Maybe next year.
Some nurseries sell rootings and grafts of “Pakistan” Mulberry (M. macroura) from mature trees, while others sell TCs (Tissue culture) obtained from AgriStarts. In my experience TCs of perennial fruiting plants usually need to be slowly acclimated to the outdoors and then remain outdoors through at least one winter before they will bear fruit.
I noticed that difference with my Trees Of Antiquity mulberry vs my Whitman farms mulberry. My Girardi from Whitman farms came in the fall and produced like mad in the fallowing spring. My Pakistan from Trees Of Antiquity came and quickly put out a lot of new growth but I did not see fruit first year. It will be interesting to see if it fruits this year.
