Fruitnut, I have 2 methods and I'm sharing my trade secrets here (what the hell- I'm 6 months from 60 and hope to retire in 25 years anyway). I start some plants straight in the ground, planting them way too close in a fenced off area. Planting them close makes maintenance per plant much less expensive given that it's all done by hand (don't ask). For apples in my climate it takes about 3 years to size them up to about 1.5" diameter- at least when planted this close. I carefully dig up these BR and put them in short 20 gallon pots (wide and shallow) in a mix of 1 part peat, 1 composted wood chips or stable waste ( almost pure humus with some carbo lumps) and 1 sand, plus a little wood ash. They limp the first season but I sell them the next for around $180 per. At this point they are bearing, 12' tall and well branched and the foliage is back to mormal. Other trees I transfer to Carl Whitcomb grow bags in real soil and let them grow about another 3 years and sell them for $250 per, or less to contractors. The grow bags I use are his last edition because they allow more root out of the bag and I can grow them without any irrigation at all- even through drought. Irrigation would reduce production by about a year, I'm sure, but in my operation only my potted plants get any and they are set in the soil as well. I always take some trees in the grow bags, remove the bags and put them into 25 Gallon pots with the soil intact but surrounded by my potting mix which allows me to sell some larger trees during the growing season. Surprisingly the soil surrounded by potting mix works very well and you might want to try that method for your trees as the soil gives you much more bang per square inch and costs less. Repotting would require only replacing the artificial soil on the edge of the soil ball. It makes things real heavy though, and my soil is not too fine so I don't know how it would work with a more clay soil but I bet it would work just fine. I'm sure my prices seem outrageous by your regional standards but I'm less than an hour from NYC and here it's more than competitive- it's the best deal around- because I have scores of varieties and they're actually properly shaped for fruit production. They also plug in better than the competitions BB'd trees, especially the ones I have in pots.

Giraldi dwarf is a Mulberry that only gets to be 6 feet tall, according to the catalogs. "Pendula' is the weeping variety, you stake it to the height you want, and it weeps down from there. I don't have experience with these, but think about ordering one of them every winter! The birds here (especially Mockingbirds) really enjoy my elderberries, eating them over a several week period. These are not the most attractive plants, a bit unruly for a formal garden if that concerns you. Two varieties are needed, and they get to be maybe 8 feet across, although that could easily be reduced by pruning the suckers. I have the varieties 'Adams' and 'Johns', which fruited their second year, and have reached what I hope is their full size in three years. My goumi bush was almost completely stripped of fruit overnight ths year, I suspect Robins were the culprit. These bushes get about 6' tall. Alex

Hello everyone! It is mulberry season and I have been fortunate enough to have some great mulberries from friends. I'd love to plant one but my space is somewhat limited so I am looking at some dwarf options. From what I have gathered my options are between an everbearing morus nigra, dwarf issai morus alba or a girardi dwarf. And along with the 3 options it seems that different nurseries appear to produce different trees which makes it all the more challenging in choosing the right tree! So any experience with a dwarf mulberry? Can someone help me select the right tree!? I'm in Phoenix, zone 9B.

Pick the morus nigra. I had a couple fruits off the Dwarf Everbearing variety this year and they were very good!