This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Bringing this thread back up to ask if I took cuttings off this tree, and planted them, would it work? I'm thinking of using them as a screen seeing how dense the top is. I can always fill in beneath as they grow taller.
I ordered 3 Illinois Everbearing Mulberry trees to plant this spring do to the superior fruiting over native red mulberry trees I’ll likely take softwood cuttings to propagate more of them in coming years to areas I want more mulberries.
I can either take some cuttings in the next couple of weeks or wait until late summer, early fall. I'm not as worried about fruit as I am about growth rate for screening.
Bud morphology is really helpful during dormant season - M.rubra buds are larger, darker, elevated from the stem somewhat, and will be located a bit off-center on the leaf petiole scar . M.alba - and most hybrids I've looked at (but some may lean more toward the M.rubra parent) - have smaller buds, centered on the leaf petiole scar, and closely appressed to the stem.
I have a friend who is heading up a SARE grant program to identify pure Morus rubra trees for conservation and potentially being incorporated into a breeding orchard to preserve valuable genetics. Have a look here, and consider contributing if you have access to productive pure M. rubra trees :
Contest Rules and Instructions(contest ends July 15th, 20223 Thank you for helping us with this USDA SARE-funded project to identify, preserve, and make available superior Morus rubra specimens. Morus rubra (red mulberry) is a vigorous, adaptable fruit-bearing tree native to eastern and cent...