I’m thinking that the ones you have in the picture for Hedycarya angustifolia are Australian turkey.
@KS_razerback. Yes that is correct. They are zone 9 mulberries Hedycarya angustifolia and are Australian turkey. If you want to order one, i have some better sources. Here is a name you will recognize that might be cheaper
"
Black Austurkey is a long-fruited M. Macroura type mulberry with excellent, large black fruit.
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Site requirements: Full sun location.
Pollination: This plant requires no pollination in order to set fruit.
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Plant size: 1-2’ Tall ‘Medium’ size
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The fruit on illinois everbearing are 1" +
The fruit on Oscar are hardy to our zone.
The fruit on wellington can be seen below
I suspect the mulberry below are not illinois everbearing unless age of the plant was an issue.
The ones i have seen look like this
Morus rubra hybrids
I would suggest you go another route. Since many cold hardy mulberries will grow in the south, how about crossing them with large non hardies and growing those seeds? You will probably decrease your time to progress in half.
When i make a cross of Morus Serrata aka Himalayan Red x ( illinois everbearing Rubra x Alba). I think i will have hardy types with 2" berries within 5 years. I have the males i need already, which nobody i know of has. Breeding in the everbearing genetics might be harder. I have several crosses i will make. The south has problems as well with growing the hardier cold tolerant types. Florida can grow every type but most wont produce.
The cold hardy trees bloom way too late (some already grow ‘Illinois Everbearing’, ‘Silk Hope’, etc. to extend the season). It would make more sense to have somebody mail pollen down from northern trees at that point, & then you’d have to mail all the offspring back north for testing either way. But I’m definitely here for that if somebody wants to team up
I could test a row of 200-300 seedlings for a winter or two in the garden.
Growing them completely out to fruit is a little more difficult for me beyond a dozen trees, because I would have to be a lot more involved than just planting and mulching, especially when I have a lot of projects going on like right now.
Watching my seedlings of ‘Himalayan FSP’ sloooowly gain height has me remembering all the data showing alba/rubra crosses with an alba mother tend to be stunted & unhealthy compared to those with a rubra mother.
I’m hopeful that pattern doesn’t hold for macroura crosses, but it may be that I’m going about this back-asswards.
We should definitely be on the lookout for male macrouras, serratas, etc. (let me know if y’all come across any!). And I definitely should have saved some ‘P2-SG’ pollen for fertilizing female rubras….
Live and learn.
I wanted to repost some helpful data starting mulberry trees from cuttings
" Starting Mulberry Trees from Cuttings
written by David The GoodApril 25, 2013
I got this e-mail a few days ago – Pamela gave me permission to respond here:
“Dear David,
I write you from New Port Richey, Florida, where my husband
and I have just purchased his childhood home. It needs many repairs and improvements, which my husband will tend to when he has the time, he has done everything from roofing to catching lobster in Maine. I on the other hand, have been focusing on the outside. The place which will be our garden some day. My father in law build the house 30 years ago, he had a garden and several fruit trees; among them mulberry trees. Two of them. One was struck by lightning and died. The other hangs across the driveway (not a good place for it). I want to start more trees (in better locations) but don’t know how to cut the tree and start others from those cuttings. The mulberry tree that’s left is quite tall now, I would like to cut it back, to a height where we can reach the fruit and use cuttings to plant more of those scrumptious berries. If you could guide me, our family would be forever grateful.
-Pamela.”
Congrats on the home purchase – it’s really cool that you’ve been able to hold on to a piece of family history. Sounds like your husband is a man’s man.
And… good questions. Mulberries are survivors. I’m actually surprised that a lightning strike killed one. Mulberries are really tough. In fact, when the nuclear apocalypse happens, they’ll be the only food left for the surviving cockroaches. (Which is good, because the roaches will probably need the energy to rebuild the banking system…)
How to Start Mulberry Cuttings
You’re in luck, Pamela. Mulberries are generally easy to start from cuttings, with two exceptions.
1. Don’t try to start mulberry cuttings from trees while they’re blooming or in fruit.
I found this out from Michael at the Edible Plant Project. The strike rate is really poor because they’ll try to fruit, rather than root. You’ll have much better luck if you try later in the year.
2. Some Mulberry Species Root Easily – Some Don’t
There are Pakistan long mulberry trees with beautiful long fruit – those are really hard to start from cuttings and need to be grafted instead. Red mulberries (Morus rubra) are tougher to root, as are black mulberries (Morus nigra). I’ve had white mulberries (Morus alba) root the easiest, but I’ve had luck with all three after enough attempts. Rooting mulberry cuttings isn’t always possible… but you lose nothing by attempting.
Now let’s get to it.
My method of rooting cuttings is moderately simple. I cut semi-hard wood twigs that are about 3/8″ to 1/2″ in diameter and 6-8″ long. (That’s new growth, but not so new it’s soft and green.) Chopping a branch into multiple lengths will work. I then dip the bottom end into rooting hormone and poke a few of them at a time into small pots filled with potting soil or seed starting mix, then water well so the soil is damp. Then, I put clear plastic 1-gal ziploc bags over the tops of the pots to make mini-greenhouses, and rubber band them in place. This keeps the moisture in. If the leaves and cutting dry out, it’s dead. These pots then sit in full shade until they root. Every few days, I’ll pull the bags off (being careful not to disturb the cuttings) to let some air in and check to make sure the soil is still moist. After a few weeks, they’ll start to root, and after about a month, you’re probably good to take the bags off for good. Just keep misting them occasionally with the hose until they (hopefully) take. Some cuttings may not make it – and some will mold. Don’t worry. Do a bunch and you’re bound to get some strikes. All of them may take – and in that case, share the bounty with friends.
When the cuttings seem good and established, I turn the pots over and separate the well-rooted baby trees into pots of their own. At this point, I also put them into half-sun. They need to get acclimated to sunlight for a while. Full sun can burn the new growth.
For a better strike rate on mulberry cuttings, start them under intermittent mist like a nursery would do it.
Green Deane shares an even easier method in his post on mulberries:
“Mulberries, in my case, Morus rubra (MOE-russ RUBE-ruh) are
full of life. One spring I trimmed my mulberry and used the branches for
stakes. They sprouted. Not one to get in nature’s way I dug them up,
gave them to a friend, and they are still growing.”
I’ve stuck some big 1″ diameter sticks in the dirt in my backyard to see if they would do the same for me – and it didn’t work.
Pruning Mulberry Trees
This is a little trickier. Because your tree is a large, older tree, the shock may kill it. But it also may not. I’d take a bunch of cuttings first, and when you have some good solid baby trees in pots, then I’d take a look at chopping their mother down to size.
I know you can severely prune mulberries without killing them. I was told by the owner of the mulberries below that his trees get cut to the GROUND every three years and they grow back and fruit without fail:
Pruning mulberry trees is easier than with most other fruit.
I don’t know if I’d be that crazy if I only had one tree, though.
If it’s in the wrong place, I might prune it heavily… if I had backup babies. If it were my tree, and I was willing to possibly lose it for the sake of science, I’d saw it off at about 4′ and let it grow from there. From what I’ve noted in my own trees, they recover remarkably well from injury, growing new bark around lacerations and pruning injuries. It’s safest to cut it back like that while dormant, just before the spring flush, however. When the sap is up and it’s poured its little woody heart into making a ton of leaves… and then you cut it… I just don’t know for sure if it will come back. The trees down south are relatively young and are used to regular shearing.
Don’t sue me if I’m wrong… but I’ll still bet you can pull it off. New mulberry trees grow and produce very quickly – if you have little ones for back-up, you won’t have to go long without eating their wonderful fruit. Take pictures and let me know if you have success with both your cuttings and the pruning!
And, if you fail on both, I’ll send you one of my own potted mulberries."
I think that if your priority is the large fruit of the macroura then using macroura as the mother is still a good strategy. Controlling the pollen side is a lot more difficult so I think it is a reasonable approach to base the mother on the genetics that you are most interested in (provided there isn’t a very compelling reason like if the seedlings are too unhealthy to survive long enough to fruit).
unfortunitely all the mulberries i grow dont root for me. ive tried serveral times with all 4. ive also failed at grafting them so many times its embarssing.
Try layering them. I layer and use stump or stool bed also.
Y’all got me taking special note of the volunteer mulberries in my yard. I know this isn’t helpful to the larger conversation, but can someone generally confirm this is a rubra or hybrid? I believe I have both alba and rubra in my yard. Leaf size difference is notable on the taller rubras, as well as longer internode spacing. Leaves are rough on both sides and have hairs even on the leaf margins.
I’m going to be keeping my eyes peeled to local mulberries from now on!
Are all the leaves like that on the tree? It is an alba or a hybrid. The deep lobes are somewhat common like we see here on Oscar as well.
Frequently mu alba like that may be males. With wild mulberry there are no absolutes. I have one i was sure was a male that fruited then never fruited again. They can briefly or permanently change gender like that.
The lobing on that leaf looks distinctly rubra to me - small serrations & acuminate tips in particular. But I’d need more & better pics to be certain.
@clarkinks
Whether a tree has lobed leaves or simple isn’t a reliable indicator of species. I’ve seen highly lobed rubras & I’ve seen simple leaved albas; & I’ve seen both change with age.
Also, I believe you mean your tree changed sex. Gender is a social construct that plants don’t have.
Here’s a “lobed” rubra I grafted with buds taken from a tree with simple leaves I found in a secluded wild area in middle TN.
No, not all of them. Some are not lobed if I recall. I have a clear alba on the other side of the yard that has smaller leaves, lighter bark, semi-gloss upper leaf surface, and underside hairs only on veins.
Pictures of the upper leaf surface are much more informative. The size and “sharpness” of the leaf serrations are also informative, with albas being bigger and more rounded. However, immature deeply lobed leaves can fool you. The pattern of lobing in your picture does look like rubra to me.
The best test is the feel of the upper leaf surface, but you can’t feel a picture. If it feels like sandpaper and is very “grabby” in one direction, it’s probably a rubra.
First lets talk Rubra with a few leaves from the net. Rubra females are normally not lobed but with a wild mulberry its true thats not reliable. Illinois everbearing is Rubra they have a sharp point to the leaves. When i see excessive lobes i think Alba hybridization usually. Notice the serrated edge to the rubra and less of that in alba.
Alba
Compare the leaf edges
Finally here is my hybrid of an alba / rubra. My 50/50 hybrid is likely more rubra than what people call rubra. I think it will fool almost anyone including me.
‘Illinois Everbearing’ is a hybrid, although the results of Weston Lombard’s genetic tests say it is more rubra than alba. True rubras have a main “sharp point” that is often a couple to several inches long (the botanical term for this is acuminate) & the “extra” lobes tend to have long acuminate tips as well. Alba & hybrid lobes tend to have short or rounded tips.
Only a few of the pictures you posted are of rubra; notably pics #1 & #8. And your 50/50 hybrid looks like an alba to me
It is true that Rubra typically come to a point like the hybrid though it is usually sharper. The serration to the leaf is nothing like alba. This is illinois everbearing. It is nearly identical to my hybrid above. It has more dramatic serration in some cases. The rubra in them is pronounced. Nearly all rubra are part alba as we know.
Haven’t heard anyone mention yet that rubra has a sharp transition from juvenile to adult form which shows up most often as a change in leaf structure.
Clark, that hybrid just looks like a hybrid to me. Compare closely with the rubra leaf I posted a few days ago and you can see the difference. The difference is that pure rubra on the upper surface looks like a piece of deeply textured leather.