I have a few wild red mulberries growing around the farm, they grow huge fast and seem to set fruit once earlier in the year, they are delicious.
I’m wondering if its worth the effort to dig a few up or maybe air-layer some and plant them in a more desirable location. Then attempt and tame the beast into something more manageable and harvestable by hatchet, axe or saw?
Or is there a dwarf or semi dwarf red mulberry compatible rootstock available I could graft onto?
There is no know dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock available for mulberry yet, All of us mulberry lovers are hoping someday that one is discovered .
Take the tree that has the most desirable traits and graft it onto whatever rootstock you have and try to keep it pruned at your desired size.
Agree with @treefrog1 .
I have a couple of local M.rubra selections grafted onto M.alba or albaXrubra hybrid rootstock. 20+ years out, they’re just as big as Illinois Everbearing planted 6-8 years earlier.
I’m sure that it would be controlled somewhat by restricting root growth, the same thing could be accomplished by taking an axe and cutting off half of the trees roots every year. At some point you got to wonder if slowing the growth down by some non-natural way going to affect the health and production of the tree.
@JesusisLordandChrist There are a number of things along that line that have been promoted at times in the past; you could try:
Bark inversion/ringbarking - removing a 1" strip of bark all the way around the trunk, inverting it, and replacing it, wrapped like a graft to re-attach. Will interfere with normal sap flow, and induce dwarfing/early fruiting, but the tree eventually re-establishes normal flow, and you have to repeat the bark inversion.
Looping - essentially tying an overhand knot in the trunk of a slender young seedling. Similar to bark inversion, this interferes with normal sap flow and will induce dwarfing/early fruiting.
This is essentially achieved with having one in a pot. They do reach a limit and eventually stall out and slowly decline. I have many in pots and will need to root prune or up pot soon as they aren’t really producing fruit or foliage after being a rootbound for a year.
I have heard of girdling but not inverting the bark. That’s an interesting technique!
Thanks for that excellent article link. Familiar name, Dr. Karl Sax, a famous propagator at the Arnold in many older horticulture books.
Dwarfing pears technique; weren’t some pear people asking how-to, recently?
Also his success with nanking under both plums and peaches.
A friend (now deceased) sent me that article back around 1996… I bought a bundle of row-run Nanking cherry from Gurney’s or similar outfit. Put peach & Japanese hybrid plums on some of them. EXTREMELY dwarfing for peach, but didn’t seem to limit size of the plums… but I only did a couple, for my Dad.
Personally I would try taking a cutting in the fall and root it into a new tree. Remember, keeping the trees equal by “hatchet, axe, and saw”, was not fair to the oaks. Love the Rush reference! If you know for sure they are truly un-hybridized with white mulberry, that would be great, from what I read they are hard to find in the US anymore. Planting a cutting in a container may make itself into a dwarf with the limited root space, again something else I read about mulberrys.
I have never had any success in rooting a pure M.rubra, whether as dormant-collected cuttings or midsummer semi-hardwood and greenwood cuttings.
Pure M.rubra may be rare in some areas, but I can probably point you to easily 100 M.rubra, growing right at the edge of the highway right-of-way, driving rural county roads within 10 miles of my home, in less than an hour.
On a recent trip home to AL, I was on the lookout for ‘roadside’ M.rubra in Elmore, Macon & Lee counties, and they were fairly common - out in the country. I’d spot an occasional one alongside I-65 in rural stretches, but they were mostly subdued by sweetgum, mimosa(Albizia), and callery.
I doubt that I could find a M.rubra ‘in town’ here… every untended fenceline or ditchbank will be a mix of M.alba, callery pear, wild black cherry, and hackberry - with the mulberry & pear predominating.
What do you think is safe, 3 exposed buds? To score or not to score? The trouble with the maples (and they’re quite convinced they’re right!) They say the oaks are just too lofty and they grab up all the light.
I just discovered mulberry trees this year. Last April or so, I was at a friends house and in the backyard next door, there was a tree with some branches hanging over the fence, with these dark purple or black berries on it. My friend told me she eats them, so I tried some and they were delicious. I filled a sandwich bag full of them to eat on the way home. I had just moved to a rural area 6 months before, and had room for trees. Just to see if they would grow, I put a couple of berries in a large pot I had planted some acorns in, that never grew. The two berries each sprouted into several little trees. I plan to put 3 into he ground this fall. I do seem to have two or three different types of mulberry tree though. I started a thread on it here, with several pics.
Blockquote [quote=“Lucky_P, post:13, topic:66224”]
I have never had any success in rooting a pure M.rubra, whether as dormant-collected cuttings or midsummer semi-hardwood and greenwood cuttings.
[/quote]
I have never tried, but want to. I have seen some videos on youtube of people claiming to have rooted M. rubra varieties from cuttings. But they were not wild North American M. rubra, they were a variety like Shangri La. Did you use any rooting hormone?
Yes, Rooting hormone and humidity chamber, but not bottom heat or mist.
Other than watering on a regular basis, I never invested much care in them. Had varying success with several different M.rubraXalba hybrids, but I’ve just stuck cuttings from M.alba or hybrid seedlings I’ve lifted from around the yard/orchard and potted up, when I beheaded them to graft on a named cultivar, no rooting hormone, no humidity chamber, and only occasional watering… with a few rooting and growing, to be used as rootstocks the next year.
[quote=“JesusisLordandChrist, post:14, topic:66224”]
What do you think is safe, 3 exposed buds? To score or not to score?
[/quote] > Blockquote
If you’re referring to air layering or grafting, I’ve never actually done it yet, I’m new at trees pretty much. From what I have read, or seen on video, for mulberrys with their white sap that bleeds out whenever cut, You want to score about a 1/2" below the graft or air layer so the sap won’t go into the wrapped up air layer or graft, and maybe lead to a bacterial infection on the wound. From what I’ve seen on video, as long as there is at least one exposed bud, but three are better.
And we all know that lowering the height of the oaks with hatchet, axe, and saw will end up in their deaths. They passed a “Noble Law” of the maples is in reality genocide for the oaks. They must not have let the oaks vote at all. The oaks can’t help it if they like the way they’re made. It’s not their fault if they are so lofty. But only one species on the planet can change it’s environment. All others are forced to adapt to it. Regardless of any law the maples pass, they will still be at the mercy of mankind to carry it out. And many men like oaks. Both trees are very useful to mankind.
You are right about bleeding sap. I was thinking about waiting until dormancy, take some cuttings, score the bottom, then dip in rooting hormone. Push down in some soil and bag it up pot and all set on my seedling table for warmth and see if they root in about 30 days.
I’ve successfully air-layered, rooted cuttings and grafted. But i’m just a beginner, so many people here with much more experince than I have. I enjoy reading this forum, I’ve learned so much by doing so and am thankful for everyone who participates here on GF.
Mullberries seem to have been around most of my life. I never really paid attention to them beside for eating them. My wife makes jelly and jam with them. I never knew there were so many differnt varieties, before I joined here. It makes me curious to see what i’ve been missing. I cant ever recall eating a bad tasting mulberry but i’ve read here that they exist. The whole male/female thing I didnt know about either until joining here. I do know that if you cut a mulberry down it will try and regrow from the trunk and roots. Knowing this gives me some level of confidence, I may be able to root dormant cuttings.
If I can root cuttings, I have several lifetimes supply of cuttings from this mullberry tree. It doesnt fruit, so I believe its a male. But it does supply a good amount of shade for the chicken house. So its useful as a shade tree
