I have 3 Oscar’s and none are old enough to get a good idea of ultimate size, but it definitely has less vigor than say IE, an it’s really wispy growth habit makes it spread out as it grows, forming a very natural open center. You can see that in the video above. The branches arch over on their own and a little coaxing and training keeps the fruit in reach. I tried to pollard one of my IE’s for a few years. Each time It reacted by shooting straight up. I’ve changed my strategy on IE to a mix of training by bending branches and letting the upper part go. Maybe I’ll try topping it again, but I don’t know that it’s worth it.
One cool thing I learned from this IE tree in particular is that at certain times of year, the limbs can be bent and will hold their shape, almost like wire. You have t be careful not to over do it, which is a fine line, but you can hear and feel something inside the branch giving way, making almost a creaking sound. presumably it’s the lignin slipping.
Right after learning this trick, I thought it might have more general application than just mulberries. I went over to my biggest Prok persimmon, and promptly snapped of a full 1/3 of its crown with what seemed like a very sight bend of a main scaffold. Ooops, I guess it’s just a mulberry thing!
My ‘Gerardi’ produced a handful of fruit in late summer/early fall the year it was planted. It produced a bit more fruit in year 2. I had pruned back a good amount of new growth between years 1 and 2, and i figured that accounted for the small year 2 harvest.
I counted buds on the new growth of three branches (ranging in length from 17 to 28") and came up with an average of 12.7 buds per foot. So pretty tight spacing in the new growth. But the buds are spaced out quite a bit more on the older growth (3 or 4 buds per foot).
Here’s a couple of photos of some of the new growth (there are a few buds on the opposite side of the branches that aren’t visible in the photos).
I also notice that my dwarf everbearing mulberry leafs out a couple of weeks earlier. My ‘Gerardi’ buds are swelling and just about ready to expand now.
From what i remember, the fruits were about medium size. Significantly smaller/shorter than my best wild red mulberries. I’ll get some photos of the fruit when they come.
Here’s some pics of my attempt at making a mulberry work for me.
First, I should reiterate how much more productive Gerardi is than any other mulberry. Here’s a pic of a Gerardi branch next to another branch. The Gerardi was grafted on in 2021. And looks to have ~5X the fruit clusters.
I thought about just cutting the whole tree off at 2’ and grafting Gerardi on. But, this rental property has a lot of shade, so I’m willing to dedicate a decent amount of space to the mulberry. If it was a prime location, I don’t think there would be any question- just grow the one what is compact, productive and good-enough fruit quality (many years the birds get it anyway…).
And Oscar is good enough that I’d really like to have more of it. Regretably, I don’t know which parts of this tree are which varieties. The notes I have of grafting locations shifted a bit and it’s difficult to reconstruct things. So, I’m going to use the fruit to ID it this year.
The IE and Oscar can stay. Any of the original wild rootstock, Wellington, or Kokuso are getting cut out. But, in the meantime, I want to try to train it to be a big open layer of fruit, 5-8’ tall (maybe a bit more, as long as the branch can be bent down for picking).
So, I went through and removed any branches which weren’t fairly low angle. The low angle stuff can be bent even lower, often by fruit, heavy rainstorms, me pulling, etc.
So I bought a labeled Gerardi mulberry from E. L. and planted it on August 11th. It was 44 inches tall, single trunk.
It put out a new branch at 22 inches from ground a few weeks later ands now that new shoot stands 58 inches from the ground. It is the new trunk as it’s thicker caliper than the original trunk.
When the new shoot took off it had 3 flowers that eventually dropped.
Before I ordered the tree I exchanged emails with E. L. stating concerns I found on this forum as to the validity of the variety.
After it had been growing for a bit I sent photos to them and they again confirmed it was Gerardi.
See photos and short video. The spacing of the buds on the new shoot is about 3.5 per 12 inches at its base and narrows down to a bit more than 2 inches between nodes at the top of the new growth. I don’t know if the spacing spreads out as the branch grows after those leaves have been set meaning I don’t know of the branch increases the distance between the leaves that have already come out before it hardens.
I’m hoping that since this is a new tree that as it grows additional branches will start shortening their spacing as has been shown in this tread. I searched for and bought a dwarf tree for a reason. I’d it is not I’ll be a bit miffed.
Yup, sorry to say that. I grow (grafted) 30 different mulberry varieties and the dwarf Gerardi of mine is from a reputable hobbyist and is the true variety. Fruit is small but taste is good. I was planning to take cuttings to root so I can use it as a dwarfing rootstock for my other varieties, but it just grows so slow that I don’t want to cut it until it grows a lot more.
If you look at the photos and description from @alliumnate above he states the older growth is more spread out and matches mine.
Nate, so you recall the vigor of your Gerardi the first year?
I’m trying to be hopeful.
If it turns out not to be Gerardi in coming years perhaps I can just graft it over to that. It appears the dwarfing is not rootstock but the growing habit of the variety as implied in this thread.
Hi Bob,
My take on your efforts is that you might be better off to grow an IE to a point where you have 3-4 strong scaffolds at the elevation you want to convert to a compact growth, then topwork each scaffold with the slower growing Girardi or other compact varieties so that the scaffold growth is equal on each. It should then give you the compact tree you seek.
I am trying this method next spring with several grafts on an IE rootstock
Dennis
Kent, wa
I searched and didn’t find anyone showing typical early year pruning for mulberry.
Since my tree is basically single trunk about 5 feet tall, I assume I cut this back some to promote laterals in late summer just like most fruit trees.
Dennis and Shibumi, I am doing that with my other tree. It is supposed to be a IE or one of those everbearing trees (when I bought the little tree). It is much larger now after 5-8yrs, but it does have small leaves and short nodes so it should work out fine as a rootstock. The fruits on this tree is super small (1/2" long or shorter) but it never has long leaf nodes and the main trunk is still not large like all my other varieties (Black Pakistan, Shangri La, Australian Green, etc). I will take a photo again of my everbearing tree and maybe someone here can tell me if they know what variety it is. I have already grafted a few different varieties on it (White Pakistan, Australian Green) and those grafted varieties are staying smaller than normal.
I concur that your photos do not look like Gerardi. Its a very distinctive variety, hard to miss. Ive seen where it can stretch out a bit, but the nodes per ft is far too few. Take a picture of the more mature growth. I can tell Gerardi even as scionwood, its that obvious
Oscar is an easy one to tell by sight @BobVance. Except for a few simple leaves on the new growth, it has all trilobate leaves that are really distinctive. If theres another cultivar that makes similar leaves all the same shape, I haven’t seen it:
@Shibumi - take a look at the wood and buds. Its very warty. The buds are large and blackish. The leaves are not that distinctive except that they are quite sandpapery both top and bottom. They are simple heart-shaped leaves, though quite symmetrical from side to side, not lob sided
yeah, my Gerardi is ailing for some unknown reason. it does make nice big leaves, but half the tree up and died mid-summer randomly & The remaining growth is a bit sickly. The texture of the wood is the big tell
