Figured I’d toss this out and see if it had interest. I’ve seen the threads on grafting but don’t think I saw one for rooting cuttings, layering etc.
So what are y’all rooting in 2025?
I’m hoping to put roots on a lot this spring. I set up an old refrigerator with both heated and humidified air (not hot, just above freezing) and set up bottom heat. I’ve already had my first success and failure. In order to get the most out of my heat pad I took an old cracked 10gal aquarium, put a layer of gravel, then my heat pad, then sand, then a mix of sand, diatomaceous earth, and coco coir. I moistened the mix to Goldilocks damp before adding to the tank and set the humidifier to 80% so it wouldn’t dry out to quickly and stuck fog cuttings from trades that had been dipped in hormone. This was late Dec.
Issue #1, humidifier failed causing the humidity to plummet between mistings. This caused issue#2 since it was hard to take the tank all the way out of the fridge, I didn’t realize quite how badly it was drying out in spite of misting the surface. This realization led to me accidentally saturating part of the mix without sufficiently watering the whole so I decided to just take everything out.
Good news, almost every cutting had begun root development and a few had impressive roots. Bad news, most of them had at least some roots that had dried out. Some appeared to have died while others just looked damaged. I potted up what looked like it was ok, and what looked rough was soaked in water, then re-scratched an out back in the newly remoistened tank that was also topped off with a few pine fines.
Did I take photos? Unfortunately between trying to salvage my mess while watching a toddler, nope. It did give me a chance to check on a few cuttings I otherwise wouldn’t have touched yet. I found the quince I was trying to root had calloused very nicely. It’s been since Dec so I don’t know if that’s enough progress to be happy about, but I’ll take it. If it fails I’ll blame humidity drop not lack of callous. I also found some of the grape cuttings started just a couple weeks ago calloused very nicely.
I did take a photo of the tank before flooding and subsequent tear down since I was happy to see roots through the side.
This year I’m rooting some Jan’s best, Tice, and Valdosta mulberries!!!
I’ve had them in 50% peat and 50% perlite for about two weeks. Almost all are budding out, but they took about 10 days to do so which I think it’s a good sign.
What is the time window after which it’s safe to consider that they have rooted? (Without checking the roots…)
With mulberries, I’m not sure there is a safe time. Mine grew leaves, then collapsed, without ever forming roots. Other people report similar results, at least with some varieties. I’m guessing that stored nutrients in a thick cutting could sustain leaves for a month without roots.
I always root in transparent containers, which eliminates the guesswork.
I would wait for 3 months – and good growth – before attempting to re-pot.
p.s. That said, given the topic, I’ll add that I am considering trying to root some mulberries just for fun after reading reports of success – Oscar, Shangri-La.
I have rooted cuttings of my dwarf everbearing from Starkbros without any issues, with nearly 80% success just in peat and perlite before. I completely neglected them and just left them outside in pots during the fall and winter seasons.
I’m rooting a couple Goumi cuttings, some mulberries and some elderberries so far. I’ll have a few more things soon. Some Chaenomeles and some gooseberry/currant. I’ve never rooted Chaenomeles.
I wanted to add Marge Elderberry this year. So that’s my main elderberry rooting but I also have Scotia, Ranch, and Jumbo.
I’ve never rooted Mulberry, but I’m giving it a go. I left enough of each varieties in the fridge that I can graft it later in the season but I’ll try rooting atleast one cutting of each I ordered. I’m not overthinking it too much. I know plenty of varieties don’t want to root, so I’m expecting some failures. I have them in a dim room, and I did add a heating mat. But my rooms quite cool, so even with a mat, the soil is staying only about 68-70. Some of the Ukrainian varieties are showing growth already, hopefully not too soon. I’ll make a complete list when I can.
I have Catherine’s Find attempting to root also. I was able to root one Pippi last year. So I’ll try to root Catherine’s before I graft later also. I’m going to try grafting to both AA and Goumi.
Well, those look awesome. It’s a datapoint. My failure was Illinois Everbearing. FWIW, I’ve seen reports of total failure with Gerardi and Silk Hope but success with Oscar, Shangri-La, Kokuso.
There is a lot of variation on rooting mulberries, as has been said already. There is only one resource that tracks success rates that I am aware of and that is Ding Dong’s site: Success Rates Rooting Mulberries – Dingdong's Garden. I like to check it to see if a variety does root easily or not.
He starts them off in darkness, which is something that I have done in the past, to try to discourage vegetative growth. I had this same idea after watching a video on how they make avocado clonal rootstocks at around 3:30, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVEP11S1Nuc. The idea being, if no light comes through, then it won’t want to grow leaves :D.
I would like to think it helps, but I can’t really confirm as I have not done enough testing. Also, there are quite a few times that it did not stop vegetative growth from forming. I have kept a cutting alive for 5 months in the dark, vegetative growth did form but the cutting did not die. I gave up on it and a tiny bit of root did form.
Now, if I go on Ding Dong’s site and see it is tricky to root then I just graft. I also don’t put much effort into rooting as before, I just leave them outside mostly in the shade and water every day during warmer seasons. Last year I did quite a few fig pops but have yet to get started on them this year. I should probably start soon lol.
I know that it’s usually done with grapes, but maybe a similar process would work with mulberries that are hard to root, or would benefit from nematode resistant rootstock.
I saw FL Fruit Geek has done it some but he told me its been hit or miss.
I saw a video recently on this on youtube. Same method with the chip bud. He said he got about 80% success rate. I plan on trying it soon but most of my mulberries that I use for rootstock have woken up already lol.
I had a Plum scion that oddly gave me 1 root in cold storage… not sure what I’ll do with it.
Going to try bottom heat with promix for mulberry. I’m planning on wrapping the top of the soil so i don’t lose too much moisture with the bottom heat.
I decided to propagate my Pakistan mulberry. I dug up some roots from its rootstock crudely and grafted 3 of them with scions from the tree. So same combination of rootstock and Pakistan. They are inside under lights in some commercial potting or starting mix.
I also made some controls with the extra scion wood. A couple I sliced some bark off the bottom and wrapped the tops in parafilm. One I just stabbed in.
The two grafts in which the roots had a couple of fine feeders are looking much better than the others. The one with no treatment yellowed and shriveled.
The prepped cuttings have swollen green buds just barely breaking through the parafilm.
I have these on a pet warming heat mat with air temp between 70-72F.
Mine have rooted easily from cuttings, other than it being cool; what’s the reason for grafting to roots? Because it is indeed cool, what’s the added benefit though?
What variety was the plum scion? I’ve seen mixed reviews about whether plums root easy, I assume it’s variety specific. If that one roots at all in cold storage you should get great success on bottom heat with hormone!
Plums and apples are two things I plan to try rooting after pruning. If I get any success it’ll be better than tossing the pruning wood aside.
Before someone asks why I didn’t post scion availability if it’s getting thrown away, they’re my parent’s trees and, though they aren’t as old as I am, none of us remember the varieties. I know one is Santa Rosa but have no clue which.
I’m rooting mulberries and figs
