Mulberries-when do they start to fruit?

11 years ago

Some time ago, i sent some rooted figs and rose cuttings to a person for some mulberry cuttings. I had been informed they were Pakistan mulberry cuttings. So I plant them, baby them, and now they are two trees, five feet high, and have not yet flowered or fruited. I gave some away, no idea about them. However, these have not done jack. Anyone know how long I must wait? How long until I am sure I've had flowering mulberry pawned off on me? This IS the person who thought poke was malabar spinach (someone sent me the seeds and I had never seen either one) and got a family member sick as all git out, so tell me, I can handle the humilieation. Just tell me already. I suppose I could graft something on them .. . dang.

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dcmoin

7 years ago

The female produce little BERRY'S purple or ruby color ,and are very sweet I ate them all the time. The Male don't,the only thing that the male does is drop a little like FUZZY berry . And He leaves a mess you have to rake and clean your yard .The male looks like this . And the female looks alittle like this

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Comments (9)

denninmi
11 years ago
How long have you had these trees? I would say probably three years is a good average to begin bearing for a grafted or cutting grown tree, probably more like 5 for seedlings.

It will depend on cultural conditions, too. If they have grown to five feet tall in their first season, I would say conditions are good for them. If, OTOH, these are four or five years old and they are only five feet tall, something might be wrong with the site or other environmental/cultural factors, and that could have a negative impact on fruiting.

Bottom line, if they are relatively young and growing well, I'd give them a few more years. If you've had them four or five years, something is possibly or probably wrong, and not necessarily the fault of the sender. However, you won't know for sure until either they fruit OR you decided it's been so long that it's hopeless.

Good luck.
olympia_gardener
11 years ago
It depends on how old tree the cuttings came from. A friend of mine gave me a air layed Illinois Everbearing mullberry this spring. It was only 3-4" stick. I got two large mullberries on it 12" long new branch this summer.
It also depends on varieties. The cutting may take longer to fruit. So don't toss it out yet.

{{gwi:123298}}
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I've not grown M.nigra. I have, however, made two separate tries at growing and fruiting "Pakistan" here in southern KY - I'm located just across the TN/KY border, about 70 miles NW of Nashville, TN. In its native Islamabad, the coldest temperature 'Pakistan' experienced was 28F; so...on the recommendation of a mulberry affectionado, I planted my grafted 'Pakistan' with the graft union below ground level, so that in the event that it froze back to ground level, the grafted variety could grow back. It did, indeed, freeze back to the ground every year for three consecutive winters, re-growing 8-10 ft each subsequent year. The last time, we had an early frost in October, which killed all the leaves, then it warmed up, the tree releafed and bloomed, then got nuked by the normal winter freezes. Next, I high-worked Pakistan, grafting it about 7 feet above ground on a vigorous M.albaXrubra selection. It grew vigorously, survived one winter, but froze out during its second winter. In my opinion, 'Pakistan' is NOT zone 6 hardy, and I won't waste any more of my time on it here.
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i have the same problem with my black beauty mulberry: 2 years of age and about 3 feet tall, and presumably like monsoon's, i got it from burntridgenursery.com mine actually fruits every year, as soon as it buds in spring. But the fruits don't go past the red color, and drops before they turn purple. As everyone had indicated here, quite likely too young to bear fruits to maturity. It only had heart-shaped leaves in 2013, in 2014, it developed the three-lobed leaves typical of figs and jackfruit trees, so i presume this new development indicates it has reached puberty, and hopefully, adulthood. I also have a couple of noir of spain black mulberries, and they too are doing the same exact things as the black beauties, bearing fruits, but subject to fruit-drop before turning purple. however, there are two varieties of mulberries which will produce fruits to maturity on the same year they have been planted, and at really tiny sizes. our pakistani mulberry actually produced mature fruits on its first year of being planted, at nothing more than a couple of feet tall, and just a spindly scrawny little stem, which even endured having its leaves stripped by the neighborhood kids. Since i don't fertilize any of my mulberries, quite likely that yammine's may have been getting extra doses of nitrogen, encouraging growth, but might inhibit fruiting. the dwarf gerardi mulberry is even more precocious, and will bear huge berries at almost every node of its 9" stem, just a couple of month after i unpacked it from the fedex box. dwarf gerardi's have very short internodes. .i am growing them in las vegas, so it could be the relatively high temps we have during spring which influence such 'behaviors'
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If I understand my mulberry botany correctly, there are also male and female plants; only the females will bear fruit. So, it may take years for you to determine if your seedlings were male or female. In addition, I would suspect that seedlings take years, if not more than a decade, to fruit. Theoretically, plants grown from cuttings should fruit sooner, perhaps in a few years. I have read that mulberry can be rooted both as hardwood dormant cuttings in the winter, and semihardwood cuttings (with a heel) in summer. I am currently playing around with the semihardwood cuttings, and will try hardwood this winter. And, maybe I've got it all wrong; in that case, maybe someone who knows this plant better will come a long and set me straight! Cheers!
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@deserthawk, i also live in vegas, and as mentioned by bob z6, you might want to try grafting black mulberries onto your rootstock, especially if you want something that has dwarfing effects, and with no grassy taste typical of most(but not all) white mulberries.If you go to star nursery at cheyenne(diagonally across mountain view hosp), they might still have some black mulberries. I thought i saw them priced at ~39.99 for the smaller ones. You might also want to try grafting with pakistani mulberries which, although not as much 'fireworks in the mouth' as black mulberries, has at least a unique and quite complex flavor profile. Only problem with pakistani's is its rapid growth, which could be a problem for small yards. I have not heard of any other fruit tree which you could graft to mulberries-- besides other kinds of mulberries. Another option would be dwarf gerardi's , which do very well in las vegas, and are quite productive. It is a true dwarf, and will grow not much more than a foot a year here.
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strawberryjohnjohn
11 years ago
Did you know that male mulberry trees do not fruit? I started 25 trees from seed. After 5 years I found only 6 out of the 25 were females that produced fruit. Good luck, JOHN
olympia_gardener
11 years ago
John, This is very interesting!! I have never heard that Mulberry tree has male/female. I have heard gingle trees are F/M separate. How do you tell them apart? I have quite few mulberry trees growing in my yard planted by birds, don't know if M or F. I figured if it is in good location, I will use it as root stock; if it is not in a good location, I just chop it off. If I graft some other mulberry, will male tree support the scion and fruits?
olympia_gardener
11 years ago
John, This is very interesting!! I have never heard that Mulberry tree has male/female. I have heard gingle trees are F/M separate. How do you tell them apart? I have quite few mulberry trees growing in my yard planted by birds, don't know if M or F. I figured if it is in good location, I will use it as root stock; if it is not in a good location, I just chop it off. If I graft some other mulberry, will male tree support the scion and fruits?
Kevin Reilly
11 years ago
Here in San Jose there are many male Mulberry trees planted as shade trees. Most people hack them back to a few stumps off the trunk every year and they explode in the spring.

I saw a video of a guy who was grafting these male shade mulberry trees with scions of fruiting mulberries. He claims it works (he is in So Cal). Can't seem to find a link to the video, sorry.
Bradybb WA-Zone8
11 years ago
I've read that the male Russian Mulberry is used a lot as root stock.So I think most likely a graft will work in your situation,olympia gardener. Brady
dhmeridian1
11 years ago
My mulberry blooms every time it has a new flush of leaves. That is every time I cut it back.

Mulberries-when do they start to fruit?

dcmoin

Comments (9)

denninmi

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