i used i.e and kokuso.
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@steveb4 I have, on occasion, encountered random individual M.alba or highly alba-influenced hybrid seedlings that just will not accept a graft.
Sure, I don’t get - or expect - 100% success on my mulberry grafts, but I’ve had individuals that I’ve tried to place grafts on - sometimes twice in a season - for 3-4 years, and they just won’t take… maybe it’s me, or maybe it really is the plant itself, IDK. But, eventually, I just terminate those, rather than wasting any more time on them.
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I have a Russian mulberry that came with a weak graft. The scion died and there was not much callus. I have now attempted about a dozen grafts with different scions and different methods and nothing has shown any signs of taking. I think it’s time to get rid of it.
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Let it grow and see what you get?
Or try an approach graft, yeah you’ll need a potted mulberry to copy, but you can plant that somewhere else once the graft takes.
I mentioned them here somewhere, but I think the best “dwarf” mulberry we have is the weeping mulberries. It’s easy to have them grafted at about 6 feet and then the center of the tree only makes it to about 7 feet and grows without much pruning like an umbrella, making all the fruits easy to reach, and it’s a wonderful place for children to have a “teepee”, and very decorative too. Also the branches could probably be braced while growing outwards to make the tree wider if you’d like.
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I have several weeping mulberry trees in pots, VERY strong weeper, if I don’t trim the branches when they reach the ground they will just grow across the ground and they are completely happy growing like that. The weeping mulberry that I have and all of the ones that I have tasted, are not even worth growing if you’re doing it for the berries. The berries are small, < 1\2 inch and have no tartness to them.
I have a wild alba rootstock that is POSSIBLY showing some signs of dwarfism, it’s a little early to tell, but my fingers are crossed. I have Corral grafted on it, it’s in it’s 4th year (2 years in a pot, 2 years in the ground) it’s 4 feet tall. It does get some deer pruning, the aggressive growth after a pruning has 1-2 inch internodes.
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Someone needs to cross a weeping mulberry with M. rubra. The weeping trait is apparently due to a single recessive locus, so it would take two generations to get weeping trees with improved fruit.
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Girardi is a true dwarf mulberry that should stay well under 10x10ft and produce a lot. It has a VERY short internode distance.
Careful buying it from some nurseries such as EL, they have a reputation of not shipping true Gerardi. I got mine at Whitman Farms from Lucille, she is my go to for mulberries, and they are true to type (and cheap).
Oh it also has a very nice trait, it seems to wake up late.
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I hope to get Girardi some day, right now I don’t have the room.
Imagine the possibilities for everyone if an actual dwarfing rootstock existed that would dwarf whatever mulberry scion you grafted on top.
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Anyone familiar with “Doug’s Dwarf”? It is listed at One Green World.
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Looks interesting. Tight internode distance is a rare trait, I wonder how the fruit is and how late it wakes up. Those are the strengths of Gerardi
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That’s what I was thinking, but I’ve only seen it mentioned two places online, which makes me want to verify.
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