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Post by richardw on Jan 28, 2018 14:50:07 GMT -5
Lincoln University did some breeding work on Mulberries back in the 1990's to which they developed three hybrid plants. Funding must have been cut or something along those lines because nothing more was done after, the breeder gave one to a bloke i shear sheep for, dont know where the other two are. The bush you see in the photos is well over 25 years old and appears to be fully grown at head level. Graeme who owns the bush have been trying to propagate off it but has found all the seed to be hollow, so this summer Graeme tried cuttings with no luck, he's going to try again this winter with a median much higher in sand than his last attempt, also going to peg down a few limbs onto the soil below as well as air layering a few. He's offered me a bush if he can get some to take. image.ibb.co/fGJjYb/20180128_115349.jpgimage.ibb.co/fkfbeG/20180128_115408.jpgimage.ibb.co/j5gSmw/20180128_115450.jpgimage.ibb.co/kmfnmw/20180128_115455.jpgimage.ibb.co/jQqnmw/20180128_115500.jpg |
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Post by richardw on Jan 28, 2018 14:50:33 GMT -5
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Post by philagardener on Jan 28, 2018 19:16:38 GMT -5
That's a pretty small plant for 25 years - it is kept small by pruning ? Sounds like the seeds are sterile for some reason. Are these interspecific crosses? Breeder still alive to ask?
Maybe if there are problems with rooting, grafting might work.
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Post by richardw on Jan 28, 2018 21:23:18 GMT -5
Thats 25 years with no pruning, has been dug up though 4 years ago and moved to his new house.
The breeder has been dead for many years now so it would be hard to find out more.
We will give the rooting more of a go, at least we can turn to grafting if need be, i know a very good nurseryman i would take some cuttings to try.
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Post by steev on Jan 28, 2018 22:12:21 GMT -5
Years ago, I knew of a weeping tree that gave large harvests of thumb-size berries; I tried cuttings several times to no success; then the tree was ripped out. Damn, damn, damn. It appears grafting is the only hope.
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Post by richardw on Jan 29, 2018 1:18:03 GMT -5
YouTube has videos of people doing rooting Mulberry cuttings, so its worth trying again.
A weeping Mulberry! how tall was it? steev
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 29, 2018 10:25:50 GMT -5
Mulberries are easiest to propagate from softwood I'm pretty sure. My friend takes cuttings from a couple of fairly prolific mulberries that are landscaping in the parking lot of our farmer's market, he climbs up to the top of the tree to get cuttings that will root.
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Post by steev on Jan 29, 2018 11:33:04 GMT -5
That tree was ~15'.
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Post by richardw on Jan 29, 2018 12:25:12 GMT -5
Similar size to a tree over the road from where i lived as a kid, wasnt a weeper though, folks that owned it would let us mob of kids climb up it and feed our faces, so, i have a bit of a soft spot for mulberries. Really keen to get something growing off the one above, fact thats its a dwarf bush appeals to me. Has no signs of been grafted, so bit of a mystery how the university managed to breed it.
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Post by richardw on Jan 29, 2018 12:26:45 GMT -5
Mulberries are easiest to propagate from softwood I'm pretty sure. My friend takes cuttings from a couple of fairly prolific mulberries that are landscaping in the parking lot of our farmer's market, he climbs up to the top of the tree to get cuttings that will root, could you ask ya mate if he's got any tips for me |
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 29, 2018 13:10:29 GMT -5
richardw I checked his YT channel and website, and it turns out h e wrote a pretty good article about propagating Mullberries. Big takeaway idea was that he's found hardwood cuttings to be really low percentage, and that "Softwood cuttings have been very successful for me since I built an intermittent mist system." Speaking from my own personal experience, misting systems are actually really easy to set up now that they have such inexpensive solar powered timers available. They are well worth it for all kinds of propagation tasks. He does say that some mulberry varieties never seem to root for him. But he says that grafting is very doable as well. So that might be a route to try if you can't get the bugger to root in mister.
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Post by richardw on Jan 29, 2018 23:54:56 GMT -5
OK, seeing that the nurseryman i know is already setup with large scale mist systems and is every good at what he does, there are times that i think its best to just call in the experts. This is the same bloke i took a locally adapted mandarin wood to, he did 50+ cuttings only 4 took, he had 2 and i had 2. We'll get this guy to do some while Graeme and me will keep trying laying.
The down side with grafting will be we wont be able to replicate the dwarfism that this bush shows
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 31, 2018 9:35:17 GMT -5
The down side with grafting will be we wont be able to replicate the dwarfism that this bush shows You never know until you try? Definitely the rootstock influences the topgrowth in apples and many orchard fruits, but thats usually using a dwarfing rootstock which is restricting the growth. I'm not aware of ANY examples of grafting a natural dwarf scion onto a "standard" rootstock. The closest thing I'm familiar with is interstem grafting where a piece of dwarfing interstem is grafted in between a vigorous rootstock and the scion. I think there are some issues with the rootstock suckering, trying to push past the restriction of the interstem (in a sense). I think it might be a really interesting thing to attempt. |
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Post by richardw on Jan 31, 2018 12:15:01 GMT -5
Rootstock suckering can be a right pain, so i dont want that, grafting could be used if the cutting and layering doesn't work.
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Post by walt on Jan 31, 2018 14:28:24 GMT -5
The down side with grafting will be we wont be able to replicate the dwarfism that this bush shows You never know until you try? Definitely the rootstock influences the topgrowth in apples and many orchard fruits, but thats usually using a dwarfing rootstock which is restricting the growth. I'm not aware of ANY examples of grafting a natural dwarf scion onto a "standard" rootstock. The closest thing I'm familiar with is interstem grafting where a piece of dwarfing interstem is grafted in between a vigorous rootstock and the scion. I think there are some issues with the rootstock suckering, trying to push past the restriction of the interstem (in a sense). I think it might be a really interesting thing to attempt. In the nursery trade, natural dwarf plants are sometimes grafted onto normal seedling roots. Especially with conifers some of which do root at all. And bonsai are sometimes grafted onto normal seedling roots. For example, the extremely dwarf Chinese elm varieties developed from witch's brooms. Usually they are propagated by cuttings, but since they may onlt grow an inch a year, they seem to take forever to make a nice trunk. So someone might grow a nice trunk, then graft the very dwarf scions onto the branches. Generally, the dwarf top grafted onto normal roots give dwarf tops above the graft. |
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